


Changes.

by steeleye



Category: Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Genre: Alternate Universe, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-05-06
Updated: 2013-06-10
Packaged: 2017-12-10 14:41:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 19
Words: 52,909
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/787189
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/steeleye/pseuds/steeleye
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Buffy awoke to the sure and certain knowledge that there was a man in her bed. Telling herself not to panic, she told herself it could just be a guy she’d met and brought back home, gone to bed with and had absolutely no recollection of.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter One.

Changes.

By Dave Turner.

Disclaimer: I do not own Buffy the Vampire Slayer or anything else. I write these stories for fun not profit.

Crossover: Non-xover.

Spelling, Punctuation, and Grammar; Written in glorious English-English which is different to American-English.

Timeline: Alternate Universe. ‘Point of Departure’, about half way through Season Three.

Words: Multiple chapters of 2500+ words.

Warnings: Don’t turn into a snake, it never helps.

Summary: Buffy awoke to the sure and certain knowledge that there was a man in her bed. Telling herself not to panic, she told herself it could just be a guy she’d met and brought back home, gone to bed with and had absolutely no recollection of.

0=0=0=0

_I watch the ripples change their size_  
But never leave the stream  
Of warm impermanence and  
So the days float through my eyes  
But still the days seem the same  
And these children that you spit on  
As they try to change their worlds  
Are immune to your consultations  
They're quite aware of what they're going through 

_Ch-ch-ch-ch-Changes_  
(Turn and face the strain)  
Ch-ch-Changes  
Don't tell them to grow up and out of it  
Ch-ch-ch-ch-Changes  
(Turn and face the strain)  
Ch-ch-Changes  
Just gonna have to be a different man  
Time may change me  
But I can't trace time 

David Bowie, ‘Changes’.

**Sunnydale, a Tuesday morning in September, 1999.**

Buffy awoke to the sure and certain knowledge that there was a man in her bed; she could feel his weight on the mattress, hear his breathing. Lying perfectly still she told herself not to panic, that there was probably some perfectly logical explanation for this. All she had to do was to keep calm and examine the evidence before she overreacted and beat the rapist-pervert to a bloody pulp! Taking a deep breath, Buffy calmed herself, chances were it wasn’t a rapist or indeed a pervert. It could just be a guy she’d met and brought back home, gone to bed with and had absolutely no recollection of. When she thought about it like that it did seem more likely that she was in bed with a rapist or indeed some sort of pervert…or both. 

Okay, she thought, examine the evidence. First the guy was breathing so that told her it wasn’t Angel and the world was still safe from Angelus. Right, her next question to herself was; what had she done last night? Thinking hard, Buffy cast her mind back to the previous evening; she remembered seeing her mom at about seven-thirty before going to the Bronze where she met up with Willow, Oz and Xander. At about half-past-ten she’d walked part of the way home with her friends and then gone for a quick patrol around the cemetery. Walking between the tombs she’d had one fight with a vampire (not the most epic battle of her life) after which she’d staked him before heading for home; as a result she’d got home before eleven-thirty. Having taken a shower, she’d gone to bed, ( _by herself_ ) around midnight and had quickly fallen asleep. 

There’d been no guys; no trips to any bars where she might have got drunk or even been drugged. Nothing, in fact, to explain why there was a man in her bed. This, she told herself, was now officially weird and probably not of the good. It was time for her to open her eyes, take stock of the situation and probably beat whoever it was in her bed with her to within an inch of their lives, just before her mom called the cops!

Opening her eyes just a fraction, Buffy had her second shock of the day, (and she’d not even got out of bed yet) she wasn’t in her bedroom; she opened her eyes wider. Although the curtains were still closed, it was after all still early morning, there was enough light for her to tell that she wasn’t in her own, safe, little, room. However, the place did look somehow familiar. Pushing herself up on her elbows to get a better view, she looked around. Yes, it was definitely familiar, but she couldn’t quite put a finger on why. Glancing around she had to stop herself from crying out in surprise when she recognised things that belonged to her. Feeling the first hint of panic starting to rise in her chest, Buffy pushed herself upright, the duvet that had been covering her up until this moment, fell away from her chest.

Looking down at herself Buffy found she was naked, she quickly grabbed the duvet and held it up to cover her breasts, it was time to get to the bottom of this she told herself. Turning her head to the left she saw the man asleep beside her, once again she got that vague feeling of familiarity. Swiftly, she knelt up on the bed pulling the duvet around her and coincidentally pulling it off him; Buffy noted that he was just as naked as she was.

“Oh-my-god!!!” Buffy gasped quietly as she reached out and gave the man’s shoulder a good shake to wake him from his slumbers, “What the hell’s going…?”

The words stuck in Buffy’s throat as the man rolled over, opened his eyes and looked at her. He appeared to be just as shocked as Buffy was by what he saw and as Buffy was feeling incredibly, mindlessly, mind numbingly, shocked just at that moment; that had to be saying something.

“G-G-Giles!” Buffy finally managed to say.

“B-Buffy?” came Giles’ puzzled reply as his hand frantically searched for his glasses; finding them he slipped them on and looked at her, “What the…?”

“Oh-my-god!” gasped Buffy again as she realised that some how she’d spent the night, in her watcher’s bed…naked…with him naked; had she mentioned that they were both naked?

“G-good grief!” Giles said vaguely just before he realised he was completely nude and fully exposed to his slayer’s gaze.

He tried to cover himself up with his hands, rolled over, lost his balance and fell out of bed.

“Giles!” Buffy let go of the duvet and instinctively reached out to save her watcher; he grabbed for her outstretched arm and accidentally pulled her down on top of him. 

They lay there on the floor for a moment and stared into each others eyes momentarily at a loss as to what to say or do. Eventually, Giles cleared his throat politely and tried desperately to ignore the naked young woman lying on top of him, he suggested that they might both get up and try to work out what was going on.

0=0=0=0

“It must be a spell,” Buffy sat on Giles’ couch with her legs drawn up under her and fiddled with the ring she’d found on the third finger of her left hand and didn’t seem to be able to remove.

“Why?” Giles called from the kitchen; like any true Englishman, when faced by a seemingly insurmountable problem he made tea; no situation is ever as grim as it seems to be when you look at it over the rim of a tea cup. “Do you find me so repulsive that you can’t imagine yourself spending the night with me?”

“EWWW Giles!” Buffy replied succinctly, she pulled at the hem of the robe she was wearing; she’d found it on the floor next to the bed and had quickly put it on, only later did she notice how short it was…particularly when she wasn’t wearing anything underneath.

“Indeed,” Giles agreed after a short pause, “I expect you’re right.”

“What do you remember about last night?” Buffy asked as Giles came over and placed a large mug of steaming hot, sweet tea on the table in front of her.

“Oh,” Giles walked slowly across the room; he was dressed in his usual dressing gown, Buffy’d had seen it lying around on previous visits to his apartment, so, no mystery there. “I came home, had something to eat. Phoned you, but your mother said you’d already gone out. I watched a documentary on the TV, read for a while then went to bed.”

“So no whipping up any love potions?” Buffy asked.

“No whipping at all, that I recall,” Giles was looking closely at the books on his bookshelf, he was frowning. “Odd,” he announced after a moment or two.

“What’s odd?” Buffy shifted a little and then remembered what she wasn’t wearing and kept her knees firmly together.

“These books,” Giles pulled something from the shelf, it looked like a photograph album, “I don’t recognise them,” he opened the big book and gazed at the first page, “Oh good grief!”

“Good grief, what, Giles?” Buffy demanded still reluctant to get up and actually look at what had so surprised Giles, “Please stop saying ‘Good Grief’.”

“W-wait…” Giles placed his mug of tea on the bookshelf and started to flick rapidly through the pages of the book. 

After a moment he dropped the book onto the floor (a very un-Giles-like action) and picked up another, rapidly flicking through its pages he discarded this book in turn. In rapid succession Giles went through half a dozen large books his face getting paler by the second. Finally he stopped, bent down and carried a book with a red cover over to Buffy.

“What is it Giles?” Buffy looked up at her watcher and saw the fear in his eyes, “tell me, you’re starting to frighten me.”

“Here,” Giles said tonelessly as he handed her the photo album, “I think this will explain some of it.”

“What is it?” Buffy took the album from Giles’ hands and noticed they were trembling, “What’s…?”

As she looked at the cover of the album, Buffy’s jaw dropped open in surprise. Her eyes fell on the red cover with its fake gold leaf decorations around the edge and the big words printed right in the middle of the cover that proclaimed, ‘Our Wedding’ in large shocking letters.

“Oh my god…” Buffy gasped as she looked in horror at the cover, “…how tacky!”

0=0=0=0

Sitting on the couch with the album in her lap, Buffy flicked through the pages her mind so numbed by what she saw she hardly noticed Giles wandering around the apartment muttering to himself. She saw herself in a pretty, white, wedding dress looking up at Giles adoringly who was dressed smartly in top-hat and tails. It had obviously been quite a fancy wedding. Turning the pages she saw pictures of herself with her brides maids, she recognised Willow, Cordelia and one or two other girls from school. Giles and her with the wedding guests, there was her mother and father a couple of aunts and uncles she recognised and some people she assumed where Giles’ relatives, plus a lot of people that she didn’t recognise.

Turning over more pages, she saw pictures of herself and Giles, obviously on their honeymoon. Turning back to the front of the book she checked the date on the sample invitation that had been stuck inside the front page inviting ‘whoever’ to the wedding of Buffy Summers and Rupert Giles, she gasped.

“This is serious,” Giles said with surprising calm.

“Serious?” Buffy looked up to see him standing in front of her, “You’re not kidding its serious!” Buffy jumped to her feet forgetting that the only thing she was wearing was a short and slinky robe that wouldn’t stay properly closed. “According to that,” Buffy pointed to the album that was now lying on the floor, “you married me when I was only sixteen and then…” Buffy paused obviously deeply shocked, “…you took me on honeymoon to Niagara Falls! How could you Giles?” Buffy was very nearly lost for words, “Niagara Falls, Giles!?” Buffy’s mouth worked but no words came out for a moment, “It’s just so…so…kitsch!”

0=0=0=0

By the time Giles had showered and dressed, Buffy had recovered from the news that she’d spent her honeymoon at Niagara Falls. The fact that she now appeared to be married to her watcher didn’t seem to bother her as much as the obvious social faux pas of going to Niagara Falls for their honeymoon.

“This is very serious,” Giles informed her again as he moved quickly about the apartment.

“You’re telling me,” Buffy agreed from the couch, giving Giles a hurt look, “Niagara Falls, Giles what were you thinking?”

“We need to get to the bottom of this and quickly,” Giles stopped moving and started to search through his pockets, “obviously someone has used some powerful magics to alter the world or at least our perception of it, Niagara Falls not withstanding.”

“Shouldn’t you be looking at you magic books right about now instead of going to school?” Buffy wanted to know.

“I’m afraid that’s one of the things that appears to have been changed,” Giles told her, “All my research materials have mysteriously vanished.”

“Vanished?” Buffy stood up and pulled her robe more closely around her; it didn’t really help in fact it probably made things worse (the material was _very_ ‘clingy’), but Giles was too preoccupied to notice the large amounts of Buffy that Buffy was still exposing.

“And another thing,” Giles took a deep breath, “there’s not a weapon in the apartment, at least none that I can find.”

“What!?” Buffy took a couple of steps towards her watcher, “Not one?” she felt naked at the thought of being weapon-less.

“No,” Giles shook his head slowly, “my weapons chest is full of things I’ve never seen before.”

“Right,” Buffy paused and thought quickly, “you go to school and see what you can find out there. I’ll swing by my house and see if there’s anything there, like weapons and maybe my mom can tell me something useful.”

“Right,” Giles agreed as he polished his glasses, “but be careful we don’t know how much this world has changed from our own.”

“I’ll be careful,” Buffy smiled, Giles always worried about her, it was one of the reasons she loved him so much, “I’ll…” Buffy stopped talking when she realised what she’d just thought.

“Buffy are you feeling alright?” Giles asked gently.

“Yeah, fine,” Buffy rubbed her stomach, she felt just a little nauseous, “it’s probably the effects of the spell, just a little queasy.”

“You better have something to eat,” Giles gestured to the kitchen, “there seems to be plenty of food in the fridge.”

“I’ll be fine,” Buffy smiled, “don’t worry about me, you better be off to work or Snyder will be after you.”

“You’re sure?” Giles let Buffy guide him to the front door, “As I say, be careful we don’t know what we’re facing here. I suggest we meet back here at four o’clock unless we have to meet up earlier.”

“Of course, anything you say,” Buffy got up on tip-toe and kissed Giles on the cheek. “Oh my god that was embarrassing,” she paused before continuing, “and just a little disturbing.”

“N-never mind,” Giles touched his face where Buffy had kissed him, “I expect its another effect of the spell.”

“Yeah right,” Buffy nodded, yes keep telling yourself that, she told herself.

“Indeed,” agreed Giles, “I-I better be off.”

“Bye, Rupert!” Buffy called after Giles as he went off to work, “Have a nice day.”

0=0=0=0

With Giles gone, Buffy drank her tea before having a shower. In the bathroom it suddenly came home to her that she did really live here. There was her toothbrush and hairbrush. Her shampoo and soap and some of her other cosmetics on the shelf above the sink mixed in with Giles’ shaving things. The clincher was when she found a box of tampons at the back of the bathroom cabinet. Wrapping her robe around herself and a towel around her wet hair, she made her way back up to Giles’ (and she supposed ‘her’) bedroom. Sitting on the unmade bed, she looked around. There was a dressing table, again with things of hers lying on it, all mixed in with Giles’ stuff.

Having found her hairdryer and dried her hair, Buffy began to try and solve the next puzzle; where did she keep her clothes? After a few false starts she eventually found them in a chest of drawers next to the bed (which she told herself that she really should make). Pulling clothes from drawers, Buffy came rapidly to the opinion that this other Buffy, the one married to Giles, dressed like a hooker. Or maybe the fashions in this new version of the world she’d found herself in were very different.

After a search that involved getting most of her clothes out of their drawers and closets, Buffy found underwear and a skirt and blouse that didn’t make her look too much like a streetwalker and put them on. The shoes she found weren’t too bad, no boots it seemed but she found a pair of high heeled sandals that she was happy with and slipped them on. Running down stairs and over to the front door she found a shoulder bag that she recognised as hers and a bunch of keys that had a key fob on that she knew to be hers also. Checking the contents of the bag, everything seemed to be in order apart from the fact that there wasn’t a stake, she dropped her house keys into the bag and opened the door. Stepping out into the morning sunshine, Buffy smiled for no other reason than that she was going to visit her mother.

0=0=0=0

TBC. 


	2. Chapter Two.

2.

The trip over to Revelo Drive had been quite an eye opener; Buffy had been right, women’s fashions in this different world were much more ‘revealing’ than they were in her own. Typically, young women, such as herself, wore very short skirts and tops that left little (if anything) to the imagination. In fact Buffy started to feel slightly over dressed.

Walking up to her mother’s front door, Buffy realised that she no longer had any keys for the house. It was obvious when she thought about it, she didn’t live here any more (at least not in this reality) so why would she have any keys? Standing at the door, Buffy lifted her hand to knock only to have the door pulled open by a teenager dressed in a black skirt that was _way_ too short and a white blouse that was translucent enough for Buffy to be able see the girl’s nipples. The girl had a pretty heart shaped face, blue eyes, long brown hair and couldn’t have been more than fifteen years old, she was also a complete stranger to her.

“Hi Buffy,” the girl smiled, she obviously knew Buffy and seemed pleased to see her.

“Hi!” Buffy smiled back unsure what else to say; the girl’s eyes appeared to drop towards Buffy’s middle.

“Still not pregnant I see?” the girl asked with a smirk, “Like, when are you and Rupert totally going to make me an Auntie?”

Buffy made some sort of incoherent sounds which the girl chose to ignore.

“Look,” she said as she stepped out of the doorway, “I’ve got to rush, mom’s in the kitchen, we’ll totally hang later, okay?”

“Yeah, totally,” Buffy nodded her head completely confused, “fine, great!”

“MOM!” The girl yelled over her shoulder as she held the door open for Buffy, “BUFFY’S HERE! I’M OFF TO WORK!”

Work? Thought Buffy, on a school day, what was going on here?

“Be careful on the road, Dawnie,” Buffy’s mother’s voice came clearly from the direction of the kitchen.

“Gotta fly!” ‘Dawnie’ said as she ran down the steps and over to a bicycle that leaned against a tree which Buffy couldn't remember being there in her own reality; the girl climbed aboard and peddled off down the street, apparently not caring that her microscopic skirt was riding up around her hips to expose the matching black panties she was wearing.

Walking slowly through the open door, Buffy looked around the hall. Things were pretty much as she remembered them except this ‘Dawnie’ girl was in all the pictures of her mother and herself that Buffy was sure had only previously shown herself and her mom; she had no memory of the girl who she was already beginning to think of as her sister.

“I'm in the kitchen, dear,” her mother’s voice called.

“Coming!” Buffy walked briskly through the house to the kitchen where she saw her mother doing the washing up (guiltily Buffy remembered she’d not tidied up the apartment before going out; she would have to do that later before Giles came home in the afternoon).

“Hi mom,” Buffy was relieved to see her mother was dressed in much the same way as she always dressed apart from her dress being a little shorter than the ones she usually wore, “how’s it going?”

“I’m fine, I’m afraid you’re father’s already out at work,” Joyce told her, “sit down while I finish this then we can talk.”

“DAD!?” Buffy cried out before she remember that things were different here and it was quite possible that her mom and dad had never broken up, “I mean,” Buffy tried to cover up her earlier outburst, “already?”

“Yes dear,” Joyce said as she turned around and dried her hands on a towel, “you know he’s working on the committee preparing for the President’s visit next month.”

“Oh my god!” If anyone had had a feather handy they could have knocked Buffy down with it, she pointed at her mother’s stomach, “Y-y-you’re p-p-pregnant!”

“Yes dear,” Joyce frowned, “seven months now, you know that,” Joyce walked over to her daughter and sat down, “are you feeling okay?”

Joyce felt Buffy’s forehead in case she had a fever.

“I-I-I’ve been feeling a little off today,” Buffy admitted truthfully, she stared at her mother who somehow looked younger than she remembered her, “I keep forgetting things…like my mother being pregnant.”

“Maybe you should see your doctor,” Joyce suggested, “have you hit your head or something?”

“Maybe I will,” Buffy nodded and smiled weakly, “so what’s been happening, apart from…” Buffy gestured at her mother’s stomach before losing the power of speech.

Over the next half an hour, Buffy discovered that her mom and dad hadn’t broken up, well at least not for long. They’d gone through a rough patch after Dawn had been born (Dawn, Buffy’s sister, the girl on the bicycle with the tiny skirt and almost see-through blouse). But they’d patched things up and moved to Sunnydale after deciding that LA had been cause of all their problems. By asking some carefully phrased questions, Buffy discovered that she’d got engaged to Giles when she was only fifteen and married him a year later. Apparently it’d been a lovely wedding.

“Are you sure you’re alright dear?” Her mother asked, “You’re looking a little pale and sweaty, are you sure you haven’t hit your head or maybe you’ve got a fever?”

“I’ll be fine,” Buffy smiled as she touched her mother’s hand across the table, “I promise I’ll go see the doctor tomorrow.”

“Maybe you’re pregnant!” Joyce smiled hopefully, “I mean you and Rupert have been trying hard enough!” Buffy made an incoherent squeaking sound that could have been mistaken for agreement. “I do hope so,” Joyce didn’t seem to notice her daughter’s distress as she got up to pour them both a cup of tea, “Both your father and I have been hoping for grandchildren.”

“You have?” Buffy squeaked as she accepted a cup and saucer from her mother and fought to keep her hands from trembling.

“It was beginning to look as if Dawn might beat you to it!” Joyce laughed lightly.

Buffy coughed and spat out tea as she nearly choked on her drink in surprise.

“I’d see the doctor today if I were you, dear,” her mother advised with a concerned frown.

“I think you’re right,” Buffy gasped and struggled to regain control of herself.

“Yes,” sighed her mother, “I do hope that young man of hers asks her to marry him soon…” 

Buffy lifted the tea cup to her lips so she wouldn’t have to say anything.

“…I mean,” Joyce continue, “Spike’s such a nice young man and English just like your Rupert.”

There was the sound of breaking china as the tea cup fell from Buffy’s numbed fingers and smashed on the floor.

0=0=0=0

Pulling his car into the faculty parking lot, Giles glanced at his watch and breathed a sigh of relief; he wasn’t going to be late for work after all. Getting out of his vehicle he stopped to admire it once again; in his own reality he’d driven a rather down at heel Citroen. In this reality it appeared he owned a rather smart, red compact; just the right size for a man and his wife and a couple of young children. The picture of himself sitting behind the wheel while Buffy sat next to him and two fair-haired children sat in the back seats came unbidden to his mind. Blinking his eyes to rid himself of this idyllic picture of family bliss he locked the door and made his way towards the school building. Crossing the little plaza, around which the older part of the school had been built he saw two students approach him across the courtyard.

“Good morning Mr Giles,” the sound of the two early students greeting him broke Giles out of his thoughts of children and Buffy as Mrs Giles.

“Good morning, boys,” Giles replied hesitantly as he watched the two young men make their way towards the gym.

Things had certainly changed at the Sunnydale High; normally he was lucky to get an incoherent grunt out of a student; even if he was ‘lucky’ enough to see one, let alone two, so early in the morning. Of course the most obvious difference between the schools was the lack of girls and those boys had looked surprisingly smart in, what Giles assumed was a school uniform of black shoes, blue-jeans, white shirts and school tie.

0=0=0=0

Making his way to the library to start work he found the school astonishingly similar to the Sunnydale High he remembered. Of course there were no female students or members of staff but if he ignored those two omissions (which he found himself increasingly able to do) the school looked very much as he remembered it. When he got to the library he walked through the door and found his route to his office blocked by a pile of half a dozen stout cardboard boxes. As he walked over to the boxes Giles searched for any other obvious differences, none immediately met his eye.

Opening one of the boxes he found it to be full of text books, he removed one and looked at the cover; ‘A Popular Guide to the History of the Twentieth Century’ proclaimed the title. Thinking how providence had smiled on him for the first time this morning, he put the book to one side hoping to find the time to read it later in the day. Foregoing his usual early morning cup of tea, he started to prowl the stacks.

Where once the shelves had held volumes of poetry there were now books on ‘Practical Woodworking’ or ‘Plumbing for Beginners’. Novels had almost completely disappeared from the shelves too; of course there were still some novels lining a few shelves. But these all appeared to be by authors he’d never heard of and all seemed to feature stories of daring-do on the battlefield or of square-jawed heroes thwarting the agents of something called the Pan Asian Co-Prosperity Sphere.

But what worried Giles the most was when he searched the book cage, here he’d kept his rarest and most ‘dangerous’ books of magic and of course Buffy’s spare weapons. Instead of finding this eclectic mix of knowledge and weaponry he found only pens and spare note pads. His book cage was now nothing more than a stationary cupboard.

“Good morning, Mr Giles,” Principal Snyder walked briskly into the library, the door swinging shut behind him.

“Erm! G-good morning, Principle Snyder,” Giles jumped with fright like a schoolboy caught doing something he shouldn’t; recovering quickly he turned to face the Principal, he raised an eyebrow and asked, “Can I help you in some way?”

Principal Snyder was still a short, balding, little man in his late forties; Giles supposed he was still the strict disciplinarian who didn’t actually like the students. He looked on them as ‘hormone fuelled bombs’ about to explode at any moment. Giles couldn’t say he liked the man, he wasn’t the sort of man who you _could_ like, in fact he’d once referred to him as a ‘nasty little troll’. Snyder stood and fidgeted as he lingered next to the library counter, he picked up one of the new history books and glanced at the title before replacing it.

“Mr Giles,” Snyder repeated.

“Principal Snyder?” Giles replied as he made for his office, the principal followed him like some sort of stray mongrel, “Can I offer you a cup of tea?” Giles asked hoping the question would encourage the man to say whatever it was he’d come to say.

“You’re a married man, aren’t you?” clearly agitated, Snyder was almost wringing his hands.

“Y-yes,” Giles replied non-committally, the fact that in this universe he was married to Buffy, a young woman more than twenty years his junior, was something that he still had trouble accepting.

“Are you happy?” Snyder looked up into Giles’ face, “As a couple I mean.”

“I suppose we are,” Giles replied with a shrug; he led the way into his little office behind the counter. 

“Good…good,” Snyder nodded his head slowly, “Do you mind if I ask a personnel question; you know how I value your opinion?”

“You do?” Giles tried not to sound too surprised; could it be that in this reality he was Principal Snyder’s friend and confidante? “Erm, certainly,” Giles said quickly recovering himself, “why don’t you sit down and tell me what’s troubling you?”

Gesturing to a spare chair Giles sat down in his own as the Principle, who he’d cordially detested for the last couple of years, got himself comfortable in his visitor’s chair.

“Now what is it you want to ask me?” Giles asked trying not to sound too eager; it had occurred to him that whatever Snyder might say next could cast some light on how the reality in which he now found himself actually worked.

“I think I’ve just made the biggest mistake of my life,” Principal Snyder admitted to Giles.

“How so?” Giles looked earnestly at the man, “Tell you what,” Giles tried his best to sound sympathetic, “why don’t you explain everything from the beginning as if this was the first time you’ve ever said anything about this to me, leave nothing out.”

Taking a deep breath, Principal Snyder began a tale of woe that sent shivers down Giles spine.

“As you may recall,” Snyder began in a quiet voice sounding as if he was ashamed of what he was saying, “I recently invested about ten-thousand dollars in a business venture; something to do with the contract for the new Townhall. Unfortunately the company went bust before the work even started owing myself and other investors several hundreds of thousands of dollars.”

“I see,” Giles hoped that Snyder wasn’t going to ask him for a loan.

“To cut a long story short, I agreed to take the CEO’s daughter in part payment of the debt,” Snyder said this as if it was the most natural thing in the world to do.

“His daughter?” Giles coughed to cover his astonishment and tried hard not to sound too surprised.

“Yes,” Snyder nodded his head, “as you know I’ve been widowed for the last ten years after my Edna died and as all the kids have married and left home I was feeling very lonely in that big old house of mine,” Snyder sighed longingly for times past, “I thought, well Cordelia is an attractive young woman…”

“C-Cordelia?” Giles tried to keep his voice neutral.

“Yes,” Snyder nodded his head, “Cordelia Chase.”

“HA!” Giles clamped his hand over his mouth so as to not laugh, “I’m sorry…I don’t think I know the young woman.”

“Oh, I think she went to school with Mrs Giles,” Snyder added helpfully.

To be honest the thought of Cordelia Chase as Mrs Snyder was almost enough to make Giles believe in a just and loving god. Of course he never would, but things like this made him question even his most deeply held beliefs.

“Of course I’ll marry the girl all square and legal, she’ll want for nothing I can assure you of that but...” Snyder’s voice faded away to nothing.

“But?” Giles, tried not to snigger when he thought about the height difference; fighting to keep his face straight he urged the Principal to continue.

“She doesn’t seem very happy about getting married and starting a family,” Snyder looked so sad that Giles almost felt sorry for the man, “Perhaps Mrs Giles could have a word with her, you know, set her straight on marriage and…well, you know…?”

He wasn’t surprised that Cordelia wasn’t happy about marrying someone like Snyder, although this Snyder did appear to be more ‘human’ than the Snyder he was used to.

Just then several boys walked into the library.

“…yes, thank-you, Mr Giles!” Snyder quickly stood up and started to sound as if they’d been discussing school business, “You’ve put my mind to rest, if ever there’s anything I can do to help…”

“Of course,” Giles stood up and smiled down at the Principal impressed by his quick thinking, “I’ll tell you what I’ll do,” Giles explained, “I’ll give this problem some thought and get back to you.”

Nodding his head in agreement Snyder started towards the door, he looked at the students who’d just come in and were standing around waiting for someone to ask them what they wanted.

“Help Mr Giles with these boxes,” Snyder ordered before walking out the door.

To Be Continued.


	3. Chapter 3

3.

**Authors Note; WARNING.**  
The last third of this chapter contains a description of an unsuccessful sexual assault.

After leaving her mother’s house, well, that was her parent’s house now of course, Buffy had taken the long way back to Giles’ apartment (her and Giles’ apartment she corrected herself) and walked through central Sunnydale. What surprised her most was the number of children and young women pushing strollers that she saw. The streets seemed to be full of them. Obviously marrying young and having large families was the fashion here.

Not really thinking about what she was doing or where she was going, Buffy let her feet take her into the mall where she’d often spent many a happy hour window shopping with Willow. Now there was a point, Buffy stopped outside a clothes store, where was Willow in all this? Her friend had obviously been to the wedding of the Buffy who belonged here so they must be friends in this reality. Making a mental note to herself, Buffy decided to, find Willow as soon as she could, perhaps she knew what was going on.

Still standing outside the clothes store, Buffy’s eyes fell on an outfit on display in the window. It was very much like all the other outfits being worn by the young women who pushed strollers or led small children around the mall. A very short skirt with a loose and revealing top, Buffy knew instantly that she had to buy it, Giles would love it!

0=0=0=0

“Buffy!” Giles called out as he closed the door to his apartment behind him.

“I’m in the kitchen,” Buffy called back.

Taking off his jacket, Giles sniffed the air.

“Something smells good,” Giles advanced cautiously into the main part of room; Buffy was nowhere to be seen.

“Just some spaghetti bolognaise,” Buffy announced as she came into the living area and walking right up to him she kissed him on the cheek.

“Erm, Buffy is that really appropriate?” Giles stepped away from his slayer and noticed the outfit she was almost wearing for the first time, “I say Buffy,” Giles took another step away from his increasingly puzzled looking slayer, “don’t you think that’s a little…too…too, revealing?”

Giles made some vague gestures in the air with his hand.

“Don’t you like it?” Buffy looked down at herself and pouted, “Everyone’s wearing something like it; I only bought it because I thought you’d like me in it.”

“Its…its,” Giles didn’t know what to say, Buffy’s new ‘dress’ revealed more of her than it covered, “its very attractive but…”

“I knew you’d like it,” Buffy smiled again, “do you want your dinner now or shall we wait ‘til later.”

“Later, if you don’t mind,” despite himself Giles followed the sway of Buffy’s hips as she walked back into the kitchen.

“Why don’t you sit down,” Buffy called from the kitchen, “I’m sure you must be tired after a long day at work. I’ll just switch everything off and I’ll join you in a moment.”

“Yes, right,” Giles replied uncertainly as he walked over to his favourite chair, something wasn’t quite right here, Buffy cooking for one, but then again nothing seemed quite ‘right’ in this reality.

“You know what I found out today?” Buffy called from the kitchen.

“I’m almost sure I don’t,” Giles replied uncertainly as he sat down, if it was anything like what he’d found out it was probably better that he was sitting down when Buffy told him.

“You’re never going to believe this,” Buffy appeared in the doorway between the kitchen and the living room.

“I’m sure I will,” the number of unbelievable things he’d read about today was quite…unbelievable.

“Okay listen to this,” Buffy beamed happily as she walked over to Giles’ drinks cabinet, “my mom and dad never broke up and my mom’s pregnant and I’ve got a fifteen year old sister, called Dawn, who’s dating Spike! How cool is that!?”

“Spike the vampire?” Giles spluttered.

“Mom didn’t say if he was a vampire,” Buffy frowned as she poured a measure of whisky into a glass and walked over to an increasingly stunned Giles, “but I don’t think he can be,” Buffy knit her brows in concentration as she handed Giles the glass. “She said he owned a motorbike dealership or something, as you can imagine I was totally knocked out by the news.”

“That Spike isn’t a vampire or that he owns a motorbike shop?” Giles took a long pull at his whisky, he had a feeling he was going to need several stiff drinks over the course of the evening.

“Mind…” Buffy sat down, placing her butt firmly in Giles’ lap; she put one arm around his neck, placed her head on his shoulder and started to play with his shirt buttons with her free hand, “isn’t this nice?” She sighed contentedly, “By the way I left my panties off so you can make love to me if you want…”

“BUFFY!” Giles sprang to his feet depositing Buffy onto the floor; instinctively he looked down at her to see if she was alright and found she hadn’t been lying about her underwear; he looked away quickly, “What’s wrong with you?”

“AAGH! Did I really just say that!?” Buffy looked up her eyes round with horror; looking down at herself she gave a little squeak of shock and tried to pull the hem of her skirt down to hide her embarrassment before jumping to her feet and running for the stairs.

Stoically not looking, Buffy’s tiny skirt really didn’t really warrant the name ‘skirt’, ‘belt’ was probably more accurate; Giles walked over to the drinks cabinet and poured himself another drink in an attempt to stop his hands trembling so much.

“Buffy?” He called up the stairs to the bedroom, “Are you alright?”

“I’ll…” there was a slight tremble in Buffy’s voice, “…I’ll be down in a moment, I’m just changing.”

Shrugging, Giles turned and walked into the kitchen. Although having Buffy throw herself at him like that was disturbing; from what he’d been able to work out, in this reality it was considered perfectly normal behaviour. Obviously the spell, or whatever had brought them here, was beginning to affect Buffy’s mind and actions. He lifted the lid of the saucepan on top of the stove and sniffed; the contents really did smell good. Replacing the lid he turned and filled another pan with water, he might as well get the spaghetti on the go while he waited for Buffy to recover herself.

“I’m sorry Giles,” turning Giles saw a chastened Buffy standing in the doorway; she’d changed into something a little less revealing. “I don’t know what happened,” Buffy took a step towards Giles but stopped herself from reaching out and touching him.

“I expect its something to do with the spell,” Giles smiled, “forget about it…”

“Forget about it?” Buffy squeaked, this sounded more like the young woman he knew so well, “Forget about it?” she repeated, “I wanted to have sex with you right there on the carpet and you say, ‘forget about it’?”

“Well…” Giles shrugged his shoulders he really didn’t know what to do or say.

“Oh god Giles!” Buffy gasped, “What’s wrong with me?”

“Look,” Giles took a step towards Buffy, hesitated and then placed a supportive hand on her shoulder, “I think it must be this reality trying to make you conform to local norms. Just watch what you do or say and try to remember who you are.”

“Who am I Giles?” Buffy stepped forwards and hugged Giles resting her head on his chest, “Buffy the Vampire Slayer or Buffy the sexy teenage wife?”

“Erm yes,” Giles gently disentangled himself from Buffy’s embrace, “we’ll have to try and work that out later, in the mean time you go and sit down, I’ll finish cooking diner.”

0=0=0=0

Over diner, Giles explained what he’d found out. He made Buffy laugh uncontrollably when he told her that Cordelia Chase was going to marry Principal Snyder.

“You mean her father ‘sold’ her to Snyder to help pay off a debt?” Buffy frowned as she sipped from a glass of water, “I mean Cordy was never one of my ‘bestest buds’ but that sounds way too cruel and disturbing and did I mention oh so funny!?”

“The thing is,” Giles smiled happy to see ‘normal’ Buffy back, “this reality’s Snyder actually seems like a nice fellow, he genuinely appears worried that he won’t be able to make Cordelia happy.”

“A major task for anyone,” Buffy agreed.

“Oh and by the way,” Giles put down his fork and spoon, “dinner was very good, you cooked it all by yourself?”

“Yeah,” Buffy sounded a little defensive, “it was easy, I just followed the recipe in the cookbook, it seemed like I knew what I was doing most of the time, you really liked it?”

“Yes,” Giles nodded, “very good.”

“Coool!” Buffy grinned with pleasure, “I’ll try something different tomorrow.”

“So you’re going to cook again tomorrow?” Giles asked hopefully, it would be nice to have a meal waiting for him when he got home from work.

“Why not,” Buffy shrugged, “I’ve got nothing better to do…I’ll also give the place a tidy up too if you like?”

“Oh that would be nice,” Giles nodded his head, “thank-you.”

“Now what was it you were going to say?” Buffy started to collect up the dirty plates.

“Apparently,” Giles stood up to help Buffy clear the table, “I paid your father five thousand dollars so I could marry you. It seems to be the tradition here.”

Buffy put down the dirty plates by the kitchen sink and looked over her shoulder at Giles.

“Is that a lot?” she wanted to know.

“It’s about average,” Giles rolled up his sleeves before starting on the washing up; he noticed Buffy’s face fall a little and felt he needed to say something supportive. “I’m sure that the Giles from this reality thinks he got a real bargain, Buffy.”

Putting her hand on Giles’ shoulder, Buffy rested her head against Giles’ back, “You say the nicest things Rupert.”

0=0=0=0

After doing the washing up, Buffy and Giles sat and watched the TV all evening as they worked out the differences between their world and the world they’d found themselves in. In this world, America and its allies were fighting several small wars in Africa and was on constant alert in case of threats from across the Pacific. The cause of all these troubles, if the news programs were to be believed, was the Pan Asian Co-Prosperity Sphere a puppet organisation ruled over by Imperial Japan.

At about ten-thirty, Giles had yawned and stood up.

“I think I better sleep on the couch tonight,” he headed for a closet to collect spare blankets.

“Oh no you will not!” Buffy stood up and grabbed hold of Giles’ arm, “If anyone should sleep on the couch its me…and what would the neighbours think?”

“But…” Giles started to object before asking himself how the neighbours would possibly find out where he slept.

“No,” Buffy shook her head, “neither of us needs to sleep on the couch, we’ll totally sleep in the bed, we’re both adults…”

“That’s what I’m afraid of,” Giles found himself being towed towards the stairs leading to the bedroom.

“Look,” Buffy started to climb the stairs, “we’ll totally be okay. We’ll just sleep on our own halves of the bed and if we start to get lusty thoughts about each other we’ll just have to control our urges and think of something else.”

“Like the British Empire?” Giles asked uncertainly; he really didn’t want to spend the night on his couch, “Well if you think it’ll be alright?”

“Of course I do!” Buffy smiled happily as she pulled an unresisting Giles up the stairs towards the bedroom, “No husband of mine is sleeping on the couch!”

0=0=0=0

**Warning!** The following section contains a description of an unsuccessful sexual assault. Readers can miss out this section if they wish. Although the scene is important to the story it can be left out as the scene is referred to in less detail later on in the story.

**Mr Lyon’s Tea Shop at about the same time.**

“Good night Mr Lyon,” Dawn called as she made her way towards the door.

“Goodnight, Dawn and thank-you,” her boss called from the rear of the teashop, “see you tomorrow.”

“Totally!” Dawn called back as she stepped out onto the street.

One of the afternoon waitresses at Lyon’s Teashop, where Dawn worked, hadn’t turned up for her shift so Dawn’d volunteered to work a double shift. Having not been planning on seeing Spike that night (he was attending a National Guard training lecture) she’d phoned Spike’s answering machine and left him a message that she’d be working late. Having worked at Lyon’s teashop since before she’d left school at fourteen, Dawn had become Mr Lyon’s most experienced waitress; she more or less ran the place when he had to go out on business.

Walking along the street before turning into the alley where she’d left her bicycle, Dawn looked around; it was nearly ten o’clock and the streets were emptying quite quickly. There were a few couples going home after an evening at the movies plus some students from the local university going back to their dorms after a night out. Other than that the streets of Sunnydale were more or less deserted. Not feeling in the least bit scared or worried Dawn crouched down to unlock her bike from the drainpipe that she’d chained it to. The tea shop closed at half-past-nine, so Dawn was used to going home late, she was a big girl now and a little darkness didn’t scare her. After putting her chain and padlock into her saddle bag, Dawn was just about to mount her bike when she noticed her rear tyre had gone flat.

“Oh, shoot!” Dawn sighed as she bent to examine the tyre; not only was it flat but it looked as if someone had slashed it with a knife. “Who’d totally wanna do that?” Dawn complained to herself.

This was so annoying, it was a long walk home and she’d been on her feet more or less continuously since about ten this morning. Pausing, she considered going back to the tea shop and phoning Spike or her Dad to come and pick her up. Shaking her head, Dawn realised that Mr Lyon would have already locked up and gone home. Pushing her bike out onto the main street, she looked up and down the road. To her left she could see a group of four or five students walking away from her, obviously going home to their beds and books. In the other direction the street was deserted, but she remembered there was a public telephone that way; she could call home from there.

Stepping out on to the pavement, Dawn started to push her bike towards the phone box, as she walked she cursed whoever had cut up her tyre. Being distracted she didn’t notice the dark figure step out of the alley behind her. The figure silently rushed up behind her and quickly and quietly wrapped one arm around her waist and placed his other hand over her mouth.

“HMMMMM!” Dawn screamed into her attacker’s gloved hand as she was pulled back towards alley and her bike fell onto the sidewalk with a crash.

“HMMM! HMMMM!” Dawn struggled against the strong arm that had clamped its hand over her mouth while the other hand roamed over her body; it slid across her breasts and then down between her legs to tug at her panties.

Feeling something hard being rubbed against her butt, Dawn redoubled her efforts to break free; she kicked and scratched with all her strength and tried to scream, but the hand over her mouth prevented anything but muffled moans from escaping her throat. As her attacker was behind her there wasn’t much for her to kick against and the gloves the man was wearing prevented her from scratching his hands.

Her attacker was pulling her to the ground as his free hand pushed up under her skirt and started to try and pull down her panties. Knowing exactly what he was going to try to do, Dawn fought on frantically; there was no way she’d let this pervert get inside her without a struggle. Somehow the man had managed to push her onto her back while still keeping one hand over her mouth. He pushed her legs apart with his knee and was leering down at her while he pulled at her blouse with his free hand. Buttons popped and Dawn’s breasts were exposed to her attacker’s gaze.

Hot tears started to run down her cheeks as she realised what was going to happen to her; she fought on but her struggles were starting to get weaker and anyway they only appeared to excite her attacker. Still keeping his hand over her mouth the rapist unzipped his pants and pulled out his penis. Shocked, and despite her present peril, Dawn almost laughed; it was tiny, even fully erect it just didn’t compare to Spike’s. 

It was while the rapist was distracted trying to pull her panties aside that Dawn got her chance. Carelessly he let one of his fingers slip between her teeth. Taking her chance, Dawn bit down hard on the digit with all her might; she felt her sharp teeth slice through the leather of the man’s glove and into his finger. Tasting his blood as he started to scream and try to pull his finger free, she continued savaging the man’s digit. Dawn didn’t let go until he hit her on the side of the head forcing her to open her mouth. Jumping to his feet the would-be rapist ran off down the alley clutching his wounded hand. Forcing herself not to lose consciousness, Dawn pushed herself up onto one elbow and tried to get a good look at her attacker and where he was running to.

“AAAAAAAGH!” she screamed as loudly as she could before taking another even deeper breath and preparing to shatter all eardrums within a two block radius, she screamed again, “AAAAAAAAAAAAGH!”

To Be Continued.


	4. Chapter 4

4.

**Main Street near Mr Lyon’s Teashop.**

Hearing the sound of approaching running feet, Dawn relaxed a little. Turning to look towards the main street, she saw the students whom she’d noticed earlier, run into the alley.

“After him!” cried one student as two of his buddies sprinted off down the alley in pursuit of Dawn’s attacker.

The same young guy turned to another of his buddies and told him to go call the police. Meanwhile, he took off his jacket and advanced on where Dawn half lay, half sat in the middle of the alley.

“It’s alright now, Miss,” he said softly as he wrapped his jacket around Dawn’s shoulders, and studiously ignored the fact that Dawn’s blouse was wide open and her panties had been pulled half way down her thighs, “Did he…” the student hesitated unsure what he should say, “…you know?”

Shaking her head in the negative, Dawn started to pull her blouse together just as the two boys who’d chased after the rapist returned.

“Sorry, man,” one of the students said to his friend who’d been kneeling at Dawn’s side, “we lost him.”

“Yeah,” agreed his buddy breathing heavily, “he must know this place like the back of his hand, he just, like vanished.”

“Mike,” the student at Dawn’s side looked up at his friend, “put your jacket over her legs, cover her up, y’know?”

“Oh yeah, right!” ‘Mike’ quickly took off his jacket and placed it over Dawn’s legs so she wasn’t exposed to public gaze anymore.

“Thanks,” Dawn whispered as she wiped the tears from her eyes.

“You’ll be alright, Miss…?” Leader-student asked softly.

“Dawn,” Dawn replied as her body started to shake from the effects of all the adrenaline in her blood stream. “I bit him you know!”

“Good for you,” said one of the students.

“On the f-finger, I nearly bit it off! ” Dawn added just before she started to sob loudly, “I w-want m-my m-mom…”

0=0=0=0

Ten minutes later Dawn was sitting in the back of a patrol car with a blanket around her shoulders. A lady from down the street had helped her get properly dressed again and someone had given her a cup of hot chocolate. The two cops had taken her statement and questioned the four students who’d found her. Other than being able to tell the officers what the attacker’s general height and build was they hadn’t been much help. However the patrolman had thanked them and sent them on their way; they’d stopped by and wished Dawn well before they’d headed on back to their dorms. Dawn hadn’t been able to give the patrolmen much of a description other than to say her attacker was much taller than she was and how strong he was and how she’d bitten his two middle fingers.

“Well that’ll help,” the older more fatherly looking of the two officers smiled at her, “you did the right thing fighting back like that.”

“That’s what they told us to do in school,” Dawn replied between sips of her chocolate drink.

“And you did it right,” the fatherly officer squeezed her shoulder supportively, “he didn’t do anything to you, you fought him off…you’ll get over it.”

Deep down Dawn knew the truth, she’d been seconds away from being raped, her world had been shattered, Sunnydale was such a safe town how could something like this happen here?

Standing up, Officer Hart walked over to his partner, Office Simmons, who was just replacing the radio-mike after reporting in to the precinct house; the girl’s parents had been informed and there was a detective at the girl’s home now getting background information and reassuring the distraught couple that their daughter was fine and would be home soon.

“Sick bastard,” Hart whispered to his younger colleague, “I hope this sicko resists when we catch him.”

“Yeah,” agreed Simmons, “you know I’ve never investigated a sexual assault before let alone an attempted rape.”

“Last case of rape we had was what?” Hart thought hard for a moment, “More than twenty years ago?”

“Before my time,” admitted Simmons, “I was still in junior high school then.”

“Never caught the sick bastard though,” Hart spat in disgust, “what’s the world coming to when a girl can’t walk home by herself at night?”

“Yeah,” Simmons jaw set in a firm line, “let’s make sure we get this sick bastard this time.” 

“Right,” Hart started to walk around patrol car, “let’s get this poor kid home to her folks.”

Getting into the driver’s seat after shutting Dawn’s door, Hart looked over the back of the seat at Dawn.

“Look, honey,” Hart shook his head, what if it had been one of his daughters? “I wanna say sorry.”

“Sorry?” Dawn looked at the officer in surprise, “For what?”

“Yeah,” Hart nodded his head, “we’re supposed to keep the streets safe from _his_ type but this time we failed.”

“Wasn’t your fault, officer,” Dawn smiled at the man.

“Yeah, well, I feel responsible, y’know?” Hart turned back to the steering wheel.

“You gotta boyfriend?” Simmons asked as the car started to move off.

“Yeah, Spike,” Dawn nodded, “I mean William Pratt, you know him?”

“Runs that motorbike place,” Simmons asked, “what’s its name? Oh yeah that’s it, ‘Motor-Spikes’.”

“That’s it,” Dawn smiled at the thought of Spike; she was starting to feel slightly better now; the two policemen talking to her like this was stopping her dwelling on her experience, “we’ve been going together for nearly eight months now.”

“Good,” Hart said from behind the wheel, “you gonna marry him?”

“Not ‘til I’m sixteen,” Dawn replied.

“Best to wait,” Hart agreed, “anyway don’t let this spoil your relationship with your boyfriend, guys like your attacker are rare and I’ve only ever heard of good things about Bill Pratt.” Hart slowed down for a traffic signal and took the opportunity to look at Dawn, “You can rest assured we’ll do our damnedest to get this sick bastard behind bars as soon as we can.”

0=0=0=0

Having delivered Dawn back to her parent’s home, Officer Hart took a moment or two to take Hank Summers to one side.

“You can be proud of your daughter, sir,” Officer Hart explained, “she kept fighting this creep, didn’t let up even when he’d got her down on the ground and…well you know…”

Indeed Hank did and if he ever got his hands on whoever had tried to hurt his little girl he’d cut the bastard’s balls off with a rusty knife.

“Do you think you’ll catch him?” Hank wanted to know.

“We’ll do our best, you can rely on that,” Officer Hart nodded his head slowly; “the way your daughter said she bit him he’ll have to seek medical help.”

“When you catch him, officer,” Hank said quietly, “I’ll want to know.”

“Don’t worry Mr Summers,” Hart replied knowingly, “you’ll be one of the first to hear.”

Officer Hart; touched the peak of his cap in salute before heading on back to his patrol car and starting the search for the ‘Sunnydale Rapist’.

0=0=0=0

**Merriview Family Planning Clinic, Wednesday Morning.**

“Hi Buffy!” Willow called happily as she saw her old friend walk into the waiting room at the family planning clinic where she worked as a nurse.

“Oh!” Buffy’s eyes grew round with surprise as she saw Willow walk briskly towards her, life it seemed (just at the moment) was so full of surprises.

As she’d promised her mother and Giles, (her ‘husband’, Buffy still had problems processing that) she’d come to see her doctor. That morning, Buffy and Giles had woken up next to each other having spent the night safely on their own sides of the bed. Like the previous morning Buffy had got up feeling queasy and dizzy; after forcing down a cup of tea (Giles didn’t appear to have any coffee in the apartment) and some dry toast. Buffy had seen Giles off to work before showering and dressing. Once again forgetting to tidy up the apartment, she instead spent ten minutes looking for the address of her doctor.

Failing dismally in her quest (did she even have a doctor, she asked herself, after all she was ‘The Slayer’ and as a result she hardly ever got sick), Buffy next looked in the yellow pages directory. Looking under ‘M’ for medical centre she found one that was between the apartment and the centre of Sunnydale. Grabbing her bag, keys and jacket, she looked in the mirror by the door to make sure she looked presentable, before heading on out.

“So,” Willow’s eyes sparkled as she looked Buffy up and down, “I’ve not seen you in here before, what can we do for you?”

Unsure of what to say, Buffy looked around the waiting room, it was still early and the room was completely empty. Looking back at her friend Buffy studied her closely; Willow was wearing a crisp, white nurse’s uniform and apart from the skirt being a lot shorter than would be considered normal and the neck line being low enough to show off a little cleavage it looked like a nurse’s uniform from a film set in the nineteen-sixties.

“Erm,” Buffy hesitated as her friend smiled at her patiently; she’d better think of something to say before Willow thought she’d gone insane or something, “last couple of days, I’ve woken up not feeling so good…I thought I better get myself checked out by the doctor.”

“Oh, dear,” Willow frowned sympathetically; she looked at Buffy closely, “you do look a little pale,” Willow paused in thought for a moment, “none of the doctors are in just yet but I can give you a quick examination, if you don’t mind…I can always get you in to see a doctor later.”

“Oh would you?” Buffy replied gratefully and sighed with relief, she’d not been looking forward to talking to a doctor she didn’t know; she’d much rather be examined by her friend, although officially she didn’t know this Willow either, but how different could one Willow be from another?

Willow led Buffy into the examination room, where she had her sit on the examination couch.

“Open wide,” Willow ordered cheerfully, Buffy obeyed and had a thermometer thrust into her mouth. “So, how’s things with you and Mr Giles?” Willow asked as she put a blood pressure cuff around Buffy’s upper arm, “Everything okay?”

Buffy nodded in the affirmative; everything was fine if you didn’t count the waking up to find yourself in an alternate reality; a reality where your best friend appeared to be a ‘sexy nurse’. Looking down as the cuff went tight as Willow checked Buffy’s pulse; Buffy noticed that her friend was even wearing high heels. That must be way uncomfortable after a long day on her feet, she thought.

“Are you eating properly?” Willow asked as she let the air out of the cuff and made a couple of notes on a clipboard, “You look a little thin, you should put on a few pounds maybe.”

“Hm-hmm,” Buffy nodded.

“Headaches?”

“Um-mm,” Buffy shook her head.

“Queasiness?”

“Hmmm,” this time Buffy nodded her head.

“Have you vomited at all?”

Once more Buffy shook her head in the negative.

“Hmmm,” Willow made some more notes on her clipboard then frowned at Buffy, “I’m sorry if this is a totally personal question, but how often do you and Mr Giles make love?”

“HMMM!” Buffy nearly bit the thermometer in two.

“Sorry,” Willow removed the thermometer from Buffy’s mouth and looked expectantly at her friend, “Well?”

“Erm…” Buffy didn’t know what to say; obviously in the two years that this other Giles and Buffy had been married thay must have made love, but she’d no idea how often, “…about average?” Buffy tried weakly.

“Oh come on Buffy,” Willow smiled as she noted the reading from the thermometer, “don’t be so coy, you can tell me, I mean we’ve know each other since like forever!”

“Twice…” Buffy said hesitantly trying to gauge her friend’s reaction from the look on her face.

“Is that a day or a week?” Willow asked not giving Buffy any clue as to what was considered normal.

“A week?” Buffy tried, not being able to think of a better answer.

“Only twice a week,” Willow looked at Buffy pityingly, “oh, well,” she shrugged, “he is way old and English.”

“Hey!” Buffy felt the need to defend her ‘husband’ against this scanky-nurse who was masquerading as her friend, “What he lacks in quantity, he more than makes up for in quality!”

What the freaking hell am I talking about, Buffy asked herself, as she calmed down and tried to get the visions of her and Giles making love on the living room floor out of her head.

“Hey sorry,” Willow’s face dropped, she’d obviously not intended to upset her friend, “Mood swings?”

“No more than normal,” Buffy replied a little huffily.

“Hmmm,” Willow noted down something else, before asking Buffy a lot more personal questions.

After making some more notes on her clipboard, Willow came to stand in front of Buffy, she smiled reassuringly at her friend.

“I’m going to take a blood sample,” Willow informed her, “but apart from your blood pressure being a little high and you being slightly underweight, I don’t think you need to worry.”

“I’m okay?” Buffy asked surprised as she watched Willow stick the needle in her arm and draw the blood.

“Well, I’m not a doctor but yeah, everything looks about right,” after putting aside the blood filled syringe, Willow walked over to a set of drawers and took something out of the top one. Turning she held the object out to Buffy, “In the mean time, while we wait for the test results to come back from the lab you might wanna pee on this first thing tomorrow morning.”

“W-what?” Buffy looked from her friend to the object in her hand; the sudden realisation of what Willow was holding hit her like a lead pipe on the back of her head.

“Mrs Buffy Giles,” Willow grinned so hard that Buffy thought her friend’s face was going to split in two, “as near as I can tell you’re pregnant…WOO-HOO, way to go Buffy!!!”

On later reflection, Buffy thought that Willow’s cry of ‘WOO-HOO!’ was a little unprofessional.

“B-but I can’t be!” Buffy stammered.

“Yeah I know,” Willow nodded her head wisely, “it does seem unlikely what with you and Mr Giles, like, only doing it twice a week!”

The next couple of minutes passed in a daze for Buffy as Willow arranged an appointment with the doctor. Warning her that she was only making an educated guess Willow pointed out that Buffy might not be pregnant after all. Walking slowly out of the medical centre Buffy promised to pee on the pregnancy tester and come back tomorrow to see the doctor. ‘Oh god’, she thought once she found herself out on the street again, she was eighteen, married and pregnant. The mere fact that she appeared to be in the wrong reality didn’t seem to be so important any more.

0=0=0=0


	5. Chapter 5

5.

**Giles’ Office, Sunnydale High.**

Sitting in his office, Giles stared moodily at the smoky orange flame that burnt in the little metal dish on his desk. Putting a cover over the dish he smothered the flame, things, he told himself, were infinitely worse than he’d thought they were. The complete lack of magic items in his flat and here in his office had worried him. It had worried him so much that he’d resolved to do a spell to see if his growing suspicions were correct.

The spell was a simple one; it didn’t even require him to chant an invocation. It just required three common chemicals, which he’d acquired from the school’s well stocked chemical store, a metal dish and a match. After mixing the chemicals, Giles poured a little of the resulting powder into the dish and set a match to it. He’d tried the spell three times and each time he’d got the same result. Instead of the clear, bright blue flame he should have achieved, he got a smoky orange one. His office and the library were built directly over the Hellmouth; if there was one place the spell should have worked it would have been here.

The spell he’d used was one of the first he’d ever memorised; it was so simple he couldn’t have possibly got it wrong, so that left only one explanation. There was absolutely no magic in this reality. The thought hit him like a bucket full of iced water thrown into his face while it was still in the bucket. If there was no magic how were Buffy and himself supposed to get home? He pondered the problem for a moment. Well, he told himself, he could spend the next forty or fifty years building some sort of gate that enabled them to travel between realities, but that seemed just a little too ‘long term’. They needed to get home now.

Hard on the heels of the realisation that there was no magic in this world, another frightening thought hit Giles’ consciousness rather like a cartoon anvil landing on his head. If there was no magic was Buffy still the slayer? The power that made the slayer was magical at its core, so, was Buffy still a deadly fighting machine possessed of all the strength and fighting skills of the slayers before her… _or_ …was she a rather pretty, blonde, eighteen year old girl to whom he just happened to be married?

Either way, it would make no difference to how he saw her; he loved her like a…somehow under the circumstances saying he loved her like a daughter didn’t seem quite right considering that they slept together. But, while having Buffy cook him dinner when he got home from school was all very nice, her still being the slayer was much more important in the great scheme of things, nice though dinner had been last night.

Just then another thought hit him (if this went on much more he’d be punch drunk by the end of the day). He was married to Buffy in this reality, just how was that going to work out? As one part of his brain was telling himself not to panic and that he and Buffy were both adults and they’d work something out. Another part of his brain was telling him that it was the fact that both he and Buffy were adults was the thing he should _really_ be worrying about.

Just then he heard a noise. Standing up he looked out into the library to see several students standing around and fingering his books. This was something else he didn’t like about this reality; students kept coming into the library expecting to take out books. Just how was he supposed to get anything done with all these interruptions?

0=0=0=0

**Sunnydale Mall.**

Blinking her eyes, Buffy found herself sitting on a bench in the mall staring up at a poster on the wall between two stores. The poster was large, in full colour and featured a heavily pregnant young woman in a Stars and Stripes bikini holding the national flag aloft. Above this rather happy looking young woman were some large letters reading; ‘The League of American Mothers – Building happy families since 1907’.

The pregnant young woman certainly looked happy, unlike Buffy just at this very moment. Looking at the poster again, Buffy narrowed her eyes, the blonde woman with the flag (and by the way that bikini was tiny) looked vaguely familiar.

“Oh my god!” Buffy gasped, “It's Harmony!?”

The thought of Harmony being pregnant made Buffy feel queasy again, so much so that she started to look around for a lady’s room.

“Are you alright, honey?”

Looking up Buffy saw a middle aged Hispanic woman looking down at her with concerned eyes.

“Yeah, yeah,” Buffy swallowed hard to still the sick, churning feeling in the pit of her stomach, “I’m fine thank-you.”

“Is it your first?” the woman asked.

“What?” what the hell was going on here, Buffy asked herself, did she have a big sign saying ‘Buffy’s pregnant’ above her head or something, perhaps Willow had put a sign on her back? “Yes…no…maybe…”

“Don’t worry,” the woman smiled, “the sickness soon passes, now are you sure you’re okay?”

“Yes,” Buffy nodded belying her true feelings; she smiled at the woman, “yes thank-you.”

Satisfied the woman smiled once more at Buffy before continuing on her way leaving Buffy alone with her thoughts. What was she going to tell Giles, now there was a thought? Standing up, Buffy started to walk towards the exit, well that was easy; _nothing_! At least not until she was sure, she’d pee on that thing Willow had given her then go and see the doctor tomorrow. Depending on what she found out depended on what she told Giles; there was no need to worry him unnecessarily not when he had more important things on his mind.

Just as she reached the exit, Buffy happened to notice a news-stand selling the usual newspapers and magazines. Walking over she studied the front pages of the magazines with titles like, ‘Teen Bride’, ‘Good Housekeeping’ and ‘Wife and Mother’ before her eyes focused on the front page of the local newspaper. The headlines and the photograph on the front page seemed to scream out at her.

' **LOCAL WOMAN VICIOUSLY ATTACKED!** ' read the headline in bold type across the top of the page. Underneath the headline was a picture of the girl Buffy had discovered was her sister, she quickly read through the first paragraph. ‘Last night, Miss Dawn Summers (15) was viciously attacked by an assailant as she walked home after finishing work….’ Scanning the rest of the front page, Buffy discovered that her ‘sister’ hadn’t been seriously hurt and had in fact injured her attacker.

“Hey, lady…” Buffy looked up to see the news- vendor looking at her, “…are you buying that? This isn’t a lending library y’know?”

“That’s my sister!” Buffy pointed with a trembling finger at Dawn’s photo, “I’ve got to see her, where can I get a cab!”

The vendor pointed down the street as he watched Buffy drop the paper and sprint off in the direction he’d pointed. Still watching Buffy as he picked up his newspaper from the ground, his one thought was, ‘My, that woman can sure run!’

0=0=0=0

**Dawn’s Bedroom, Revelo Drive.**

“Hold me Spike,” Dawn lay on her bed propped up with pillows, cushions and a pile of her favourite stuffed toys.

“Here,” Spike sat down on the bed next to her and gently put his arm around her shoulder, “how’s that Nibblet?”

“I said ‘hold me’!” Dawn replied a little more sharply than she’d meant to; taking hold of Spike’s free hand she placed it firmly on her breast, “I’m not a China doll, Spike, I won’t break!”

“Sorry…I didn’t think…” Spike began defensively, “…you know after…well…” Spike found this all so embarrassing, “after…you know…?”

“For the last time,” Dawn softened a little, after all her boyfriend was only being considerate, “he didn’t hurt me, he just frightened me…in fact it was me who hurt him!”

“Yeah,” Spike replied with some feeling, “remind me to never put anything important near those teeth of yours.”

“What nothing!?” Dawn giggled as she snuggled up to Spike drawing comfort from the warmth of his body next to hers, “not even…?” 

Giggling a little more, Dawn turned her face up towards Spike as he bent down to kiss her softly on the lips.

Dawn had first met Spike, better known as William Pratt, a couple of months before her fifteenth birthday. He’d come into Mr Lyons’ Teashop on Main Street, where she worked as a waitress. He’d sat down at a corner table and started to write soppy love poems. At least Dawn had thought they were soppy until he’d started addressing them to her. From Dawn’s point of view it had been love at first sight, she just knew that this was the man she was going to marry; on he other hand Spike had taken a little more convincing that Dawn was the girl for him.

However, after making sure he always had his favourite cup and his tea was just ‘so’ plus making sure that she was the only waitress to ever serve at his table, Dawn had eventually persuaded him to ask her out to the movies. Their first date had nearly been a disaster; Dawn had found the film incredibly boring and had fallen asleep, she’d even snored a little. But when they’d gone for a meal afterwards, they’d laughed about it and Spike had shyly touched her hand across the table. At his touch Dawn felt a spark of electricity that seemed to pass right through her body. Then when he’d kissed her goodnight after he’d walked her to her front door, Dawn knew that she was going to spend the rest of her life with him.

William Pratt, she found out, was a good man. But he could be made better and she was just the woman to make sure that happened. This morning was a case in point; as soon as he’d heard what had happened (Dawn’s mom hadn’t called him until the morning because she’d wanted her daughter to get a good night’s sleep after the doctor had given her a sedative). He’d rushed round to Revelo Drive to be at her side. While this was all very nice and Dawn really appreciated the attention; but, while Spike was here what was happening at the motorbike shop that he owned? Nothing, that’s what was happening, Spike didn’t have an assistant so when he wasn’t there the shop was closed and he’d be losing money and customers.

Of course when they got married, she would help out but they’d need proper help, after all there’d be babies and Dawn couldn’t be in the shop all the time. Also Spike was missing out on a big customer base by just selling motorbikes. What with gas the price it was and with the prospect of rationing on the horizon, people would be looking for alternatives to their cars. So, why not sell bicycles as well? Dawn had researched it quite thoroughly and they could diversify with only a relatively small loan from the bank. Of course Spike would take some convincing, but, she’d had years of practice getting men to do what she wanted; after all she’d been twisting her father around her little finger for years now. Of course getting Spike to do what she wanted would be easier still; after all she had weapons in her armoury that she could use on Spike that she’d never even dream of using to her father!

“Spike,” Dawn said softly between kisses as her left hand started to unbuckle his belt and unzip his pants, “when are we going to get married, I mean actually married with, like, the dress and the flowers?”

Disentangling herself from Spike’s embrace, Dawn worked herself down his body until her mouth was level with his crouch.

“Married?” Spike croaked as if it was the first time the subject had ever been mentioned; they had in fact had an ‘understanding’ for some time but no firm date had been set and Spike hadn’t said anything in front of witnesses.

“Yeah, you’ve spoken to dad right?” Dawn’s hands pulled Spike’s manhood out into the open before she kissed it lightly.

“Erm, yes…” Spike fidgeted uncomfortably, the thought of Dawn’s sharp teeth being so close to his penis seemed to be worrying him, particularly with what he was about to tell her. 

“You _have_ totally talked to him about us getting married right?” a hard, brittle edge had entered Dawn’s voice as she held on tightly to Spike’s ‘best friend’.

“Yes, yes of course I have Nibblet,” a certain amount of fear and panic had entered Spike’s voice now; he really wished he could be braver where Dawn was concerned, “it’s just…”

“Just what, Spike?” Dawn asked menacingly as her mouth froze only inches away from his penis, her grip tightened (but not in a good way) on his ‘piece of pork’, “What have you done, Spike?”

Knowing he was in real trouble now, because Dawn kept saying his name like it was some sort of curse word and because she seemed to have a death grip on his ‘John Thomas’, Spike decided that his only option was to tell the truth and come clean.

“I leant the money I was going to use for your ‘Bride-price’ to a friend!” the words tumbled out of Spike’s mouth in their hurry to be said.

“YOU WHAT!?” Dawn shrieked.

“AAAGH!” Screamed Spike in reply, “Please let go!” he begged as his body curled up in pain around his cock, “I’ll-I’ll get it back, I promise,” he pleaded, “with interest!”

“William Algernon Pratt,” Dawn said with steely menace, Spike knew he was now in _big_ trouble because she’d just used his full name, but on the good side she’d at least let got of his penis, “How could you? Anyone would think you didn’t want to marry me.”

“But I do!” Spike pleaded, he really did; apart from her occasional bouts of temper Dawn was a really sweet young woman; also he was useless with women normally. He got all tongue tied when he tried to speak to them (he blamed his overbearing mother for that) and he doubted that he could find anyone as good as Dawn to go out with by himself. “I promise to get the money back by the end of the week,” he told her urgently, “and I’ll give it to your father straight away!”

“Mind you do,” Dawn said her voice softening a little, “but in future don’t lend out money without at least talking to me first,” she melted into his arms her earlier anger seemingly forgotten, “after all its both our futures now…” Dawn started to stroke Spike’s penis with gentle fingers, “…now let Dawnie kiss that better.”

Taking Spike’s penis into her mouth, Dawn was just thinking about how easy men were to control (as long as they didn’t realise you were controlling them) when her bedroom door slammed open and Buffy burst in; she stood there panting as if she’d run all the way from her and Giles’ apartment to Revelo Drive.

“Spike?” Buffy gasped sounding slightly confused to find Spike in what had once been her bedroom; her eyes moved over to were Dawn lay and Buffy realised what her sister was doing, “Dawn!?” 

“HMMUFFY!” Dawn mumbled; her mouth being more than a little full right at that very moment.

“Dawn!?” Buffy repeated before slowly collapsing onto the floor in a dead faint.

0=0=0=0


	6. Chapter 6

6.

**Merriview Family Planning Clinic.**

Glancing up to look out of the window, Willow saw that it was already dark. Looking down at the watch which hung from the front of her uniform she sighed tiredly, she’d not realised how late it was. One of her fellow nurses, Ashley, had asked to take the day off so she could spend the day with her fiancé who’d been home on leave from the army. He was shipping out to South Africa the next day so it would be the last time she’d be able to see him for at least a year. Willow had generously volunteered to work a double shift to cover for her friend.

Getting back to restocking the draws and cabinets in the treatment room, Willow was so engrossed with her work that she didn’t notice the slight draft caused by someone opening the clinic’s front door. Neither did she hear the door to the treatment room open and close or the soft footsteps as they crossed the room towards her. Her first inkling that something might be wrong was when a strong arm wrapped itself around her middle and a hard, callused hand snaked around her body and squeezed her breast.

“AAAGH!” Willow cried as she squirmed in her assailants grasp and managed to turn to face her attacker; she punched him half-heartedly on the shoulder, “XANDER HARRIS!” she cried, “What the heck do you think you’re doing?” she fought free of Xander’s embrace and pulled her uniform straight again, “Not that I’m not totally glad to see you,” she grinned as she put her arms around his neck and kissed him slowly on the lips.

“Can’t I drop by to see my very own ‘sexy nurse’?” Xander replied once Willow had stopped kissing him.

“Of course,” Willow smiled up into his eyes, “but next time can you make some noise when you come in or do I need to put a bell around your neck?”

“Whatever you want, Will,” Xander smiled as he pulled her close, “whatever you want….”

The young couple spent the next few minutes kissing, until Willow pushed Xander away a little.

“Hey,” Willow said, “if I wanna get out of here tonight I better get this finished,” she gestured to the open boxes of medical supplies.

“Yeah, okay,” reluctantly Xander let go of his fiancé and went to sit on a nearby stool.

“Xander!” now free of his embrace, Willow saw the poorly applied bandage on his hand, “What happened?”

In an instant, Willow had crossed the space between them and was holding Xander’s injured hand in her own.

“Oh its nothing,” Xander replied with a wave of his free hand, “I had an accident at work, that’s all.”

“Who put this bandage on?” Willow wanted to know, “A one armed blind man?”

Not waiting for an answer Willow pulled Xander by the wrist over to one of the treatment tables. Getting him to sit down on another stool she rested his hand gently on the padded surface of the table.

“I’m going to have a look at that,” she announced as she collected bandages, dressings, antiseptic and all the other medical paraphernalia needed for wound cleaning and dressing.

“Its fine,” Xander told her half-heartedly, “I’ll go to the Emergency room tomorrow….”

“After your hand’s totally turned black and about to drop off, yeah,” Willow turned the full power of ‘the resolve face’ on her fiancé and watched his determination crumble under its onslaught, “Now hold still while I get this so-called dressing off.”

Working quickly and efficiently with a pair of scissors, (Willow had worked for six weeks in the Sunnydale General Emergency Room just after graduating from nurse school) she soon had the bandage off.

“Ewww,” Willow cried unprofessionally, “what the heck happened?” she asked with a frown, “This totally looks like a bite.”

“Erm,” Xander hesitated for a moment, “I-I got bitten by a dog!”

“A dog?” Willow looked closely at Xander’s chewed fingers; she was no expert but it did look about right for a bite from a medium sized dog.

“Yeah it was running around the site today,” Xander explained, “I reached down to pet it and it bit me!”

“Oh poor baby,” Willow sympathised before kissing Xander on the lips again, once again becoming ‘nurse-girl’, she bent over the wound, “At least it’s clean,” she looked up into Xander’s eyes, “are your shots up to date?”

“Yep,” Xander nodded firmly, working in the building industry he knew how important it was to keep his tetanus shots up to date.

“Good,” Willow cleaned the wound with antiseptic just to make sure.

“Ow!” Xander winced away from Willow’s touch.

“Baby,” Willow muttered, “now hold still while I bandage this up.”

Quickly and professionally Willow applied a dressing and a neat bandage to hold it in place, once she’d finished she started to clear everything away.

“You might want to see your own doctor tomorrow,” Willow explained as she busied herself with getting the treatment room back in order, “So, you obviously didn’t come here to just get your hand dressed, and I wasn’t expecting to see you tonight, so…?”

“Oh I just thought I’d come around and take my best girl home, y’know?” Xander explained.

“Y’wanna make out?” Willow asked as an impish smile spread across her face, “I’ve got loads of condoms that are near their ‘use by’ dates!”

“Ah,” Xander sighed, “the advantages of dating a nurse who works at a family planning clinic and has access to an almost inexhaustible supply of condoms.”

“Now I totally get it!” Willow replied in mock ‘hurt’, “You only want to marry me for my condoms! Swine!”

“No…” Xander laughed, “…I’ve got to be up early to meet a client and I’m all sweaty and dirty from work.”

“I like sweaty and I can live with dirty,” Willow told him as she came over to where Xander sat and wrapped her arms around him.

“Yeah,” Xander smiled as he returned Willow’s embrace, “but I wonder if you’ll still be saying that after five kids.”

“After five, yes,” Willow punctuated her comment by kissing Xander on the forehead, “after six? I’m not so sure.”

“Hey,” reluctantly Xander disentangled himself from Willow’s arms, “come on, I’ll put your bike in the back of the truck then I’ll drive you home, okay?”

“Oh I suppose so,” Willow huffed, “you sure about the not making out?”

“I’m sure, I’ve still got to finish some stuff before I can go home,” Xander replied with no great conviction, “but I’ll tell you what….”

“What?” Willow asked eagerly.

“I’ve got a major surprise planned for the weekend,” Xander grinned like a fool, “so I expect there could be some major ‘making out’ afterwards.”

“That good, huh?” Willow asked excitedly, “Heck, the weekend is totally so far away,” she complained, “but I won’t throw those condoms away just yet!”

0=0=0=0

**Buffy and Giles’ Apartment later that night.**

“…so to recap,” Giles lay in his bed staring at the ceiling while becoming increasingly ‘aware’ of the young woman lying next to him. “We appear to be in a reality were there’s no magic but you’ve still got your slayer powers.”

“…and we’re married,” Buffy continued, “Cordelia has been sold to Snyder…” she unsuccessfully tried to stifle a giggle.

“Buffy,” Giles said warningly.

“I know I shouldn’t Giles but…” regaining control on her amusement, Buffy tried to get back to what she was about to say, “…it’s just so totally funny! Now where was I?” Buffy paused for a second before continuing, “Oh yes, Willow is a sexy nurse, by mom and dad never split up and I have a fifteen year old sister who I caught performing oral sex on Spike this afternoon.”

“I think I could have done without that last detail,” Giles pointed out calmly, “are you alright by the way, no more fainting spells?”

“Yeah I’m fine,” Buffy lied, she’d still not mentioned what was possibly her biggest piece of news, but that could wait until she was sure, “I think it must be the spell that brought us here, or the shock of seeing Dawn sucking Spike’s…y’know…’thingy’!” she turned her head to look at Giles, “You okay, no fainting fits or anything?”

“I’m fine,” Giles admitted, “as long as you never mention what this Dawn girl was doing to Spike ever again,” he paused for a moment before continuing, “I think the spell, is affecting you more because…well, I’m older and more ‘set’ in our own reality or something.” Giles sighed in frustration, “To be honest I’m guessing, without my books I can’t be sure of anything.”

“Poor Rupert,” Buffy rolled onto her side and rested her head on Giles’ shoulder and her laid her arm across his chest.

“Buffy,” Giles said with just a hint of panic, he didn’t want a repeat of the previous nights little ‘misunderstanding’.

“What?” Buffy raised her head to look at her ‘husband’.

“You’re doing it again,” Giles cautioned, “you’re being inappropriately affectionate.”

“I am!?” Buffy moved her arm and lay back down on her back, “Oh shoot!”

Giles continued to stare at the ceiling his mind full of jumbled thoughts. These little displays of affection by Buffy were becoming more and more frequent and they’d only been here two days. What would she be like after two weeks? Alright it had started innocently enough with a peck on the cheek when he left for work or came home, but tonight, she’d kissed him full on the lips before he’d even got fully through the door. Which begged the question; in a few more days what else would she be doing when he came home? Then there was all the cooking and cleaning, his flat had never looked cleaner and as for the cooking…well, this Buffy seemed more willing to use her culinary skills than the Buffy he knew.

“Giles?” Buffy asked slowly.

“Hmm?” Giles replied sleepily.

“If there’s no magic how do we get home?” she wanted to know.

“I expect I’ll work something out,” Giles explained, “perhaps we’re here for a reason, maybe we’ll get sent home automatically once we’ve done what we were sent here to do.”

“Yeah,” Giles could hear the uncertainty in Buffy’s voice, “but what if we’re not?”

“Sorry?” Giles shifted slightly so he could see Buffy’s face in the moonlight from the window, he found himself thinking what a very attractive young woman she was.

“Well,” Buffy rolled onto her side so she was looking into Giles’ eyes, “what if we totally don’t get sent home, what if we have to, like, stay here forever?”

“Does that worry you?” Giles fought to stop himself from gathering Buffy into his arms and holding her.

“A little,” Buffy shook her head, “but I was just wondering, would it be so bad…if like we _did_ have to stay here forever?”

“I…” Giles didn’t know what to say so he rolled over so he had his back to Buffy, “…we’ll worry about this tomorrow, now lets get some sleep…goodnight Buffy.”

“Goodnight, Rupert,” Buffy sighed deeply before turning away from Giles and closing her eyes.

0=0=0=0

**South Valley Drive, Sunnydale.**

Detective Jim Stein noticed the flashing lights of the patrol cars long before he saw the small crowd of concerned neighbours being held back from the house by two uniformed officers. Bringing his car to a halt a little way up the street from the crowd, he switched off the engine. He sat quietly for a moment as he prepared himself for what he was about to see. The report had been brutal in its simplicity; ‘multiple murders at 1267 South Valley Drive’, that was it.

The thing was that Sunnydale had about one murder a year, last year there’d been none! Now there was a multiple murder and it had happen while he was on call. Taking a deep breath, Stein opened the door and got out of his car. Walking over to the house he saw an unremarkable suburban scene, if you ignored the thirty or so people standing on the front lawn of number 1267; he noticed some of the men were carrying rifles…they’d not bothered to get dressed but they'd taken the time to grab their hunting rifles.

Pushing his way through the crowd, Stein flashed his shield at the nearest uniform and was told to go straight in. Walking towards the house he saw a child’s bike leaning against the front porch, potted flowers next to the door and flowering shrubs all around the house. He climbed up the three steps towards the front door and nearly tripped over the sheet shrouded body that lay just inside the house.

“Sheesh!” Stein exclaimed as he stumbled around the body, he’d really not expected to be faced with the reality of the situation so soon.

“Hi Detective,” called a friendly voice from a little further into the house.

“Oh, hi Walter,” Stein recovered himself quickly.

Officer Walter Bloem, a twenty-five year veteran of Sunnydale PD stood a little further down the hall from the door. Stein had known Walter since he’d joined SPD a couple of years ago, Bloem was a steady man who was good at his job, one of the best the SPD had in fact.

“Nasty one this,” Bloem pointed out.

“Aren’t they all?” Stein replied, “Show me what we’ve got.”

“Okay,” Bloem took a deep breath before starting his report, “you’re lucky that I was the first on scene so apart from covering Mr Craig there,” Bloem gestured towards the body by the front door, “everything is still how I found it.”

“Okay, go on,” Stein nodded.

“We got a call at about eleven-thirty from a neighbour that the Craig’s front door was wide open and they could see someone lying on the floor just inside,” Bloem explained. “Lucky for us instead of trampling all over the crime scene the neighbour phoned it in, me and Officer Hernandez arrived about five minutes later.”

Bloem walked over to Mr Craig and lifted up the sheet that he had placed over him.

“First we have Mr Jonathon Craig, 47, works out at the defence plant as a draftsman.” Bloem dropped the sheet back into place, “he musta opened the door and got his throat ripped out.”

“Animal attack?” Stein crouched down by the body and lifted up the sheet to take another look.

“Perhaps,” Bloem shrugged, “maybe the perp had an attack dog…quieter than a gun,” the uniformed officer scratched the back of his head, “anyway there’s nothing else down here,” Bloem gestured to the stairs leading to the bedrooms, “the rest of the family’s up stairs.”

“All dead?” Stein swallowed hard.

“Looks like,” Bloem nodded, “hope you haven’t eaten recently.”

“Oh crap,” Stein said quietly as he climbed the stairs behind Bloem.

Upstairs, Stein was shown the bodies of Mrs Craig, and the six Craig children aged between seventeen and six, they were all dead and they all had neck wounds.

“Bastard played with the two younger girls for awhile before he killed them,” Bloem pointed out, “there’s an older married daughter living out in Oxnard…”

“Someone gone to find her?” Stein asked; he didn’t want the poor woman to find out about what had happened to her family by watching the TV news.

“Oxnard Sheriff’s Department is on it, Jim,” Bloem replied, “Hey look at this Detective.”

Walking over to the body of one of the Craig boys, Walter pointed to the child’s neck, “see this? Looks like he’s been stabbed with a barbeque fork or something.”

“Yeah,” Stein gave the wound a closer look, it did indeed look as if the boy had been stabbed in the neck with a large folk.

Standing up straight, Jim Stein scratched the back of his head, there was something wrong here and it took him a moment to work out what it was.

“Walter,” Stein said quietly, “you sure everything is how you found it, no one’s done any cleaning up?”

“Everything is just like it was when I arrived,” Bloem confirmed, “working on the timings of the original call and when we arrived there just wasn’t the time, what’s up?”

“Come on Walter,” Stein gestured to the room they were in, “you’ve seen enough crime scenes, what’s missing?”

For a moment Bloem just looked around in confusion; it took a minute for the pieces to fall into place it was so obvious and he wondered why it hadn’t registered before.

“No blood,” Bloem said eventually.

“Exactly,” Stein agreed, “eight people killed by neck wounds the place should be covered in the stuff…!”

“Detective!?” a voice called from below.

“Yeah?” Stein looked down stairs to see a young uniformed officer looking up at him.

“Got a message from the Oxnard Sheriff’s office, sir,” the officer began hesitantly, “they contacted the married daughter…” again the officer hesitated, “…there should be seven kids still at home!”

“Crap!” Breathed Bloem as the full horror of the case hit him.

“Bastard,” cursed Stein, having killed the entire family whoever had done this had kidnapped the one surviving child.

“I’m so going to enjoy seeing the bastard that did this fry,” Bloem observed.

0=0=0=0


	7. Chapter 7

7.

**The Giles’ Residence, Thursday Morning.**

The alarm clock rang its bell annoyingly at Giles as he slowly woke up and for just a moment he had a feeling of ‘strangeness’ or ‘not-quite-right-ness’. Eventually his brain came fully awake and filled in the blanks for him. Feeling movement to his right he turned to see Buffy’s back as she sat on the edge of the bed, he watched her run her hands through her hair before reaching down and picking up her robe and putting it on over the t-shirt and panties she wore to bed.

“Morning Buffy,” he croaked his greeting as Buffy stood up and headed for the stairs leading down to the main part of the flat.

“Hi, Giles,” Buffy mumbled as she shuffled past the end of the bed and headed down the stairs.

It was amazing he thought as he watched Buffy disappear downstairs, no doubt heading for the bathroom, they’d only been here since Tuesday morning, but they’d already fallen into a kind of routine. First Buffy would get up and go down stairs and use the bathroom. This gave him time to get up undisturbed and collect the clothes he’d wear that day; by the time he’d done that Buffy would have finished with the bathroom and would be heading for the little kitchen. This would be her signal to him that he could use the bathroom in peace.

0=0=0=0

As instructed, Buffy peed on the pregnancy tester. After washing her hands she brushed her teeth and pulled a brush through her hair, a little voice inside her head was telling her that her husband deserved better than having to look at his wife’s frazzled hair while he ate his breakfast. Putting down her hairbrush once she was satisfied that she looked respectable for so early in the morning, she picked up the tester and looked at the little window on the side.

‘Yes! You’re pregnant!’ it said, for some reason Buffy thought that there should be a fanfare or something. 

“Okay,” Buffy told herself, “so it says you’re pregnant,” she put the tester back into its plastic holder and hid it at the back of the bathroom closet behind her box of tampons, “I won’t be needing those for a while,” she told herself quietly. “So, I’m pregnant, these things can be wrong, right?” She tried to convince herself that it was all a mistake, “Maybe it’s like a total false positive or whatever…”

Not really convinced, Buffy washed her hands yet again before unlocking the door and heading for the kitchen.

0=0=0=0

Having washed and dressed, Giles stepped out of the bathroom and into the main living area.

“Sit down,” Buffy’s voice came form the direction of the kitchen, “breakfast’s almost ready.”

“Buffy,” Giles started to protest, “you really don’t have to you know?”

“But I want to,” Buffy announced as she came out of the kitchen and placed Giles’ breakfast on the table in front of him.

“That’s very kind of you,” he smiled as he sat down and picked up his knife and fork; on the plate in front of him were bacon, eggs and lightly butter toast, prepared just how he liked them.

“Oh!” Buffy headed for the kitchen again, “Tea!” Moments later she reappeared with a cup and saucer in her hand and placed it near Giles’ right hand, “There you go,” Buffy smiled warmly before heading back to the kitchen.

“Aren’t you eating?” Giles called as Buffy reappeared with a big mug of tea in her hand, “You’re feeling alright? No queasiness or anything?”

“No, I’m fine,” Buffy stood in the doorway to the kitchen and delicately sipped her tea from her big mug, “I’ll eat later…you mind if I switch on the TV?”

“Erm,” Giles shrugged, he normally didn’t like having the TV on while he was eating but it seemed churlish to refuse Buffy’s request after she’d cooked his breakfast, “no, go ahead.”

Putting down her mug, Buffy padded softly over to the TV set on bare feet. Sitting at the table Giles found himself watching Buffy as she crossed the room. She was still wearing that ridiculously short robe that exposed her shapely legs. He found himself admiring the curve of Buffy’s carves and her smooth thighs; she might not be very tall but she had very nice legs. Watching as Buffy bent from the waist to switch on the TV, Giles caught just a glimpse of white panties.

“Oh my god,” he whispered as a fork full of bacon and egg froze half way to his mouth, “what are you thinking? You’re old enough to be her father!”

The thoughts that had started to go through his mind concerning Buffy and himself had been most disturbing.

“Oh, my god!” Buffy cried out, “Giles you must see this!”

Looking up as Buffy increased the volume on the set, Giles half expected to see some extract from a new film or some new rock band gyrating about on a stage. Instead he saw pictures of police and ambulance crews removing sheet draped bodies from a house. Putting down his knife and fork he got up and walked over to join Buffy watching the TV. He heard the news anchor saying something about a horrific multiple murder in Sunnydale. The anchor went on to explain that a family of eight had been viciously murdered in their own home and that there were unconfirmed reports of another child being taken from the house. The scene changed to a reporter on the scene who was trying to get information from a harassed looking detective.

Failing to get anything new out of the tight lipped investigator, the reporter turned and did a short piece to camera. He explained once again that a Mr and Mrs Craig and six of their children had been brutally slain in their own home last night and that another child was reported as ‘missing’. He also speculated that this attack might be connected to an assault on a young woman in central Sunnydale the previous night. Signing off the reported handed back to the studio where the anchorman handed over to the 'weatherman' who was in fact a heavily pregnant woman.

“Oh my god, Giles,” Buffy said slowly, “it’s just like our Sunnydale.”

“I’m not so sure,” Giles walked back to the table and picked up his tea cup, “didn’t you notice the tone of shock in the reporter’s voice?”

“Yeah,” Buffy shrugged as she turned to face Giles, “but that’s just how reporters totally act, right?”

“I don’t think so,” Giles sipped his tea, “he seemed genuinely shocked, like this sort of thing doesn’t happen here very much.”

“Meh?” once again Buffy shrugged, “But!” suddenly Buffy’s eyes lit up, “What if this is what we’ve been sent here to deal with…I mean that,” she jerked her thumb at the TV, “was pretty gross even by our Sunnydale’s standards, I mean something actually going into someone’s house to kill them…” Buffy seemed to run out of words and stood looking at Giles waiting for him to say something or tell her what to do.

“Why don’t you do some research into it?” Giles suggested, “I mean there’s still a lot we don’t know about this Sunnydale and how it differs from our own.”

“And how am I supposed to do that?” Buffy placed a small hand on her hip making the front of her robe ride up enough to expose her panties, she didn’t seem to notice or care.

“Erm?” distracted by the flash of white cotton, Giles looked away, almost anywhere but at Buffy, “There’s the library?” he suggested, “Or you could call Willow for help….”

“Yeah, like that’s ‘sexy-nurse-Willow’ who has a full time job,” and who I’ve got to go and see this morning, she added to herself.

“Oh yes I’d quite forgotten,” Giles looked back at Buffy to find she’d moved her hand and her robe had fallen back into place, not that it helped much.

“You know what would help,” Buffy smiled as she walked slowly towards Giles a predatory look in her eyes.

“W-what would that be?” Giles found himself retreating before Buffy’s steady advance.

“If we had a computer I could do research on that internet thing,” Buffy was standing right in front of Giles now staring up at him with her big green eyes.

“W-well I don’t know…” Giles felt his arms move, it was like they didn’t belong to him, next thing he knew he was holding her around her slim, supple waist, “Oh god!” Giles dropped his hands to his side, “Erm, yes why not?” he said in panic, “Take my credit card but don’t buy anything too expensive,” he glanced at his watch without really seeing it. “Now I better get to work or I’ll be late.”

“Cool!” without any warning Buffy bounced up on tip-toe and kissed Giles quickly on the lips, “You’re a star, Rupert,” she turned away and headed for the kitchen, moments later she came back holding up a neatly folded, brown paper bag. “Lunch!” she announced, “No man of mine’s going to work without a proper packed lunch.”

“Oh Buffy you shouldn’t have,” he might say that but Giles was actually deeply touched, “I don’t know how you find the time.”

“Slayer speed is useful for more than just slaying vamps,” Buffy grinned happily, she’d found she enjoyed doing nice non-slayery things for Giles.

“Indeed,” Giles agreed, “look you get that computer thing you want and while I’m at work. I’ll try and do some more research myself, there’s a few things I’ve noticed are odd about this Sunnydale.”

“Odd!?” Buffy scoffed, “This is totally Sunnydale, Giles, home of the weird and the wacky.”

“So all the more reason for us to do some research,” Giles told her.

“Okay,” Buffy smiled, “see you after school.”

Once again Buffy bounced up on tip-toe and kissed Giles on the lips, this time she took a little longer to do it.

“Yes…right…” Giles adjusted his glasses, clutched his packed lunch to his chest and fled the apartment with Buffy’s call of, ‘Have a nice day, dear!’ still ringing in his ears.

0=0=0=0

**The Mayor’s Office.**

“What’s going on, Bob?” Mayor Richard Wilkins asked his Chief of Police, “An entire family slaughtered in their beds, a child gone missing; and all this after that other girl…what’s her name…got assaulted.”

“Dawn Summers,” Allen Finch the Deputy Mayor supplied helpfully.

“Thank-you Allen,” the Mayor nodded his thanks to his deputy, “Send her some…”

“We sent flowers and a note, sir,” Finch interrupted.

“We did?” Wilkins frowned at Finch silently asking why the flowers had been sent without him mentioning to do it.

“She’s the fiancé of William Pratt, sir,” Finch explained, “a major contributor to your last re-election campaign.”

“Oh yes that’s right,” Wilkins nodded his head slowly, “better send a message of support to Mr Pratt too.”

“Will do, sir,” Finch made a note in the notebook that hardly ever left his hand.

Seeming to remember why he’d called this meeting Mayor Wilkins turned to look at his police chief again.

“Mr Mayor,” Chief Reddy began slowly, “I have my best man on it, Detective Stein is very experienced in these sorts of cases, we recruited him from LA to head up our Detective squad, remember?”

“Indeed I do,” Wilkins certainly remembered the bonus Sunnydale had had to pay to get Stein to move himself and his family up here, “So what has Detective Stein discovered?”

“Its still early days yet, Mr Mayor we’re still collecting evidence…” Chief Reddy would have said more but the Mayor interrupted him.

“So what evidence have you found?” the Mayor picked up a plate of cookies and offered them around.

“Well,” Chief Reddy eyed the cookies hungrily, then looked down at his expanding waistline and thought better of it, “it looks like the Craig murders were committed by one man.”

“ONE MAN!” the Mayor yelled almost dropping the plate of cookies, “You mean even the biting?”

“We’re not sure of that, we think it’s a possibility,” Reddy explained, “but its more likely that he had a trained animal, probably a dog or possibly a chimpanzee.”

“A chimpanzee?” the mayor and his deputy said in chorus.

“Yes sir,” Reddy nodded, “chimps are extremely strong and have teeth quite capable of ripping out a human’s throat.”

“Well,” Mayor Wilkins couldn’t help but let some sarcasm creep into his voice, “it seems your job is going to be very easy…”

“How’s that Mr Mayor?” Chief Reddy asked.

“It’s simple,” Wilkins turned and headed back towards his desk, “just arrest everyone who owns a chimpanzee!”

“I wish it was that simple sir,” Reddy wasn’t sure if the mayor was joking or not; Wilkins was quite capable of ordering him to arrest every chimp owner in Sunnydale, not that there were that many…if any. “No, Detective Stein seems to think we might have a serial killer on our hands.”

“A what?” Finch, who normally only spoke when he was spoken to or to supply information, interrupted.

“Thankfully they’re very rare,” Reddy began to explain, “As you probably know most murders take place in the heat of the moment or as a result of another crime.”

Wilkins and Finch nodded their heads as they listened to the Chief.

“Whatever the reason, most people don’t go out planning to kill,” the Chief sighed heavily, “Unfortunately, Serial Killers do plan their murders, in fact it’s their reason to kill. To put it simply they kill for killings sake.”

“Good grief,” Wilkins gasped, “and your saying one of these…serial killers, is loose in Sunnydale?”

“It’s beginning to look that way, sir,” Reddy admitted, “the vicious method of attack, the number of victims. The assault on the Summers girl might have been an attempt to kidnap her to fore fill the killer’s perverted lusts…Nancy Craig might have been taken because Dawn Summers fought him off…”

“But the Summers’ girl’s a mere slip of a thing,” Finch pointed out his face going pale at the thought of what this fiend was doing to the Craig girl even as they spoke.

“I read the reports,” Reddy commented, “Dawn Summers bit him and fought him off, she’s a very brave and lucky girl.”

“Yes…yes indeed,” Mayor Wilkins stared across his office without really seeing it, could this really be happening in his town?

“Mr Mayor?” Chief Reddy noticed how the mayor’s eyes had become unfocused.

“Yes! What?” Wilkins dragged himself back to the here and now and looked up at his Police Chief, “Right! Chief, anything you want, any resources I can get you, all you have to do is ask and I’ll get it for you. I want this vicious killer caught before he kills anymore voters…erm, I mean citizens!”

“Understood Mr Mayor,” Reddy nodded before he turned to go, “I’ll let you know if there’s anything else I need.”

0=0=0=0

Watching the Police Chief leave, Wilkins dry scrubbed his face, this had to happen now. There was the President’s visit next month, he was going to ‘break ground’ for the new armaments factory being built on the outskirts of town. The government factory would provide jobs for hundreds of citizens and attract more businesses to the city which would in turn make more jobs. How would it look to potential investors if there was someone going around killing people? Yes it was tragic that an entire family had been killed, but he had to worry about all of Sunnydale not just one family.

Looking up from his musings, Mayor Wilkins saw Finch standing patiently waiting to be given his orders. Smiling for the first time today, Wilkins thought how lucky he was to have Finch work for him; loyal, efficient Finch who knew how to keep a secret.

“Allen,” Wilkins glanced at his deputy, “arrange a press conference for noon, I want to reassure people that their Mayor is doing everything in his power to deal with this situation.”

“TV, sir?” Finch’s pen hovered over his note book, “I should be able to get you a slot on the local TV news tonight at six.”

“Yes do that,” Wilkins nodded, “oh, and call my wife and tell her I won’t be home until late.”

“Flowers?” Finch hinted.

“Yes why not,” Wilkins nodded.

“Is that all sir?” Finch asked as he moved towards the door.

“Unless you can think of anything else?” Wilkins was just about to tell Finch to go when an idea came to him, “There is one thing, Allen.”

“Sir?” Finch paused, his hand on the door.

“Ask Mr Trick to come see me would you?”

“Right away, sir,” Finch quietly opened the door and left, leaving the mayor to his thoughts.

Chief Reddy was a good man and Wilkins had every confidence that his police would catch the killer…eventually. But that was the problem, the police had to follow rules and procedure; this all took time. Mr Trick, on the other hand didn’t have to follow rules or procedure, he could take…short cuts. Then when he found the killer there’d be no need for a long messy trial that would keep Sunnydale in the public eye and would remind people on a daily basis of what had happened. No, Mr Trick could make sure nothing like that happened, he was the sort of man who could make problems like serial killers simply go away.

0=0=0=0

**Harris Homes, construction site, Sunnydale.**

Sitting in his site office Xander massaged his bandaged hand, it was throbbing painfully, but he still hadn’t gone to the emergency room or his doctor like Willow had advised. The thought of Willow made him smile before darker thoughts entered his mind. Last night had been fun, but the bitch who’d bitten him was still on the loose. He opened the bottom drawer of his desk and pulled out the revolver that lay there; tonight he’d hunt the bitch down and blow her freaking head off.

Then of course there was the weekend to look forward to, he’d take Willow to his little ‘love nest’ and they could have some fun with no one around to disturb them. He smiled at the thought of what he was going to do to Willow over those two days, he’d really make her scream!

0=0=0=0


	8. Chapter 8

8.

**Merriview Family Planning Clinic.**

Doctor Carpenter was a nice older man who didn’t talk down to Buffy (even though he was a good foot taller than she was) even when he told her that she was in fact pregnant; about four weeks along as it happened. When Buffy objected asking whether the tests were completely reliable. Doctor Carpenter had just smiled and admitted that, yes there was a small margin of error but usually these days the tests were as near 100% accurate as made no difference. The doctor seemed more concerned that the news of her impending foray into motherhood wasn’t filling Buffy with the joy and happiness he was used to seeing when he passed on this sort of news to prospective mothers.

After calling Nurse Willow in, Doctor Carpenter had Buffy strip off so he could examine her. Why did doctors always insist that you took off all your clothes and make you wear some stupid gown that only did up at the back? Buffy was sure it was because doctors loved to humiliate you while they showed off how clever they were. At least Willow was there to hold her hand and offer moral support. After being poked and prodded in places that, quite honestly, she’d rather not be poked and prodded in, Buffy was allowed to get dressed again.

The doctor gave her a clean bill of health and a short lecture on what she could expect over the next eight months plus a list of does and don’ts. He told her that ‘Nurse Rosenberg’ would make appointments for check ups (She had to come back? The thought of being pocked and prodded again didn’t exactly fill Buffy with joy) and give her some literature to read (There was reading to do, what next, homework?). Still not happy with the fact that Buffy wasn’t dancing on the desk (Buffy was sure that was one of the ‘don’ts’ the doctor had given her) with joy, he smiled and released her back into the wild.

0=0=0=0

“Gotta say Buff,” Willow said as she typed appointment dates into the computer on the reception desk, “that you don’t look exactly happy at the prospect of being a mom.”

“Oh its nothing,” Buffy lied, “I’ve got stuff on my mind and I wasn’t really trying to get pregnant just yet,” both these facts, on the other hand, were true.

“Well,” Willow smiled at her friend, “if you ever need to talk, give me a ring and we can totally bitch and moan about the men in our lives.”

Buffy chuckled a little at Willow’s words, obviously Willows’ in whatever reality would always be her bestest buds. As Willow typed away on the computer keyboard Buffy let her eye drift over to the computer itself. It looked slimmer and much more compact than the computers she remembered; the screen was definitely thinner and flatter. Perhaps computers were more advanced here.

“Erm, Willow,” Buffy said hesitantly, “I wonder if you can help me…”

It didn’t take Buffy long to talk Willow into joining her for a computer shopping spree at lunch time. In fact Willow seemed more than happy to go with Buffy saying that she felt like they’d been growing apart since leaving school and she didn’t want that to happen.

“…I mean,” Willow laughed, “husbands and fiancés are okay but you totally need a girlfriend to go shopping with and how much did Rupert say you could spend?”

“Oh! What?” Buffy was momentarily confused by Willow’s sudden change of subject (something else that didn’t change about Willows’), “He didn’t say,” Buffy shrugged, “he just said don’t spend too much…Willow why are you looking at me like that?”

“Looking like what?” the red-haired nurse asked innocently, “I’m not looking like anything!”

When she left the clinic Buffy had a promise to meet Willow at twelve-thirty to go computer shopping and a card in her bag that said she was expected to come back for her first ultrasound scan in twelve days time. Still not feeling exactly bursting with joy, Buffy headed home wondering how she was going to break the news to Giles.

0=0=0=0

**The Morgue, Sunnydale General Hospital.**

“Exsanguination,” proclaimed the doctor as he pulled off his surgical gloves and dumped them in a bin.

“What!?” Detective Stein exclaimed in surprise, “All of them?”

“These are only my preliminary finding of course,” the ME continued, “I though you’d want some indication of how they all died.”

“Yes of course,” Stein said slowly, “thank-you.”

“Yes, as I was saying, exsanguination,” the doctor seemed to enjoy saying the word, “hardly a drop of blood left in any of their bodies.”

“Good grief!” Detective Stein looked around at the sheet shrouded forms of the Craig family as they lay on gurneys in the hospital morgue; the police headquarters didn’t have its own morgue as murder was such a rare occurrence in Sunnydale. “What about the bite marks?”

“Hmmm,” the doctor pulled off his surgeons cap as he pondered the question, “now that is a bit of a poser…they’re not like any bite marks I’ve seen before.”

“Please Doctor,” Stein interrupted, “anything would help, what’s your best guess?”

“Well, it wasn’t a dog or indeed a chimpanzee,” the doctor gave Stein a small smile at the idea, “the best I can come up with is that they’re similar to human teeth marks but with longer, sharper canines…whoever did this must have been covered with blood.” The doctor gave Stein a questioning look, “As must the crime scene, I assume you found a lot of blood at the scene?”

“Not a drop doctor,” Stein shook his head before repeating, “not a drop.”

0=0=0=0

**The Giles Residence late afternoon.**

“Hi Giles!” Buffy cried out as she rushed to the door of the apartment to greet her ‘husband’, “Had a nice day?” she asked as she snatched the briefcase from his hand and put it next to the coat stand by the front door, “Oh my, you do look tired,” she added not giving Giles time to reply, “Here let me help you with this,” she helped Giles out of his jacket.

“Buffy what’s…?” Giles tried to ask Buffy what she thought she was doing but instead he found himself being pulled inexorably towards his chair.

“Oh you do look tired,” Buffy repeated as she pulled him past the dining table and the new shiny laptop computer that sat upon its surface, “come and sit down.”

“Buffy what is…?” Giles tried again but was pushed down into his chair.

“Erm, you look like you need a drink,” Buffy continued with her manic greeting ritual, “Tea? Whiskey? Glass of wine?” 

“Buffy please…” Giles was going to ask her to stop talking and let him speak but today it seemed he was out of luck.

“Wine! Right, glass of wine,” Buffy turned and almost ran into the kitchen.

Alone, at least for the moment, Giles got up out of his chair and made his way over to the table and the computer. To his untutored eye it looked very shiny, very new and very expensive.

“OH!” Buffy reappeared with the promised glass of wine in her hand, “I-I see you’ve found the computer…h-honey…nice isn’t it?” Once again Buffy was at Giles’ side and dragging him back towards his chair and away from the computer, “Willow helped me choose it, here,” she more or less pushed Giles down into his chair, she certainly hadn’t lost any of her slayer strength, “sit down and drink your wine, I’ll go…”

“BUFFY!” Giles felt the need to raise his voice, “Stop talking and trying to force wine into me and tell me how much that computer cost!”

It was fairly obvious to Giles that Buffy had bought something overly expensive and was trying to distract him from the truth.

“Oh Rupert,” Buffy contrived to look like a wronged ten year old, which considering the rather revealing dress she was wearing was no mean feat, “it didn’t cost all that much _really_ ” she stretched the word out, “and its very good, it’ll last us years and its easy to use and did I mention Willow made me buy it?”

“Stop trying to blame Willow and tell me how much you spent,” Giles replied levelly.

“Three-hundred-and-forty-six dollars,” Buffy twisted her hands together and flinched in anticipation of Giles’ expected outburst.

“Oh!” Giles said pleasantly surprised, he’d actually expected to pay more.

“Oh?” Buffy frowned at him, “You’re not angry?”

“No,” Giles shook his head as he once more advanced on the computer, “easy to use, you say?”

“Yes!” Buffy agreed eagerly as she came to stand next to Giles, “And it has this ‘wireless’ thingy,” Buffy paused and frowned at the machine, “I’m not sure what that is but Willow said it meant you can use it anywhere,” she paused once more before asking hopefully, “you like it?”

“Yes,” Giles ran his fingers lightly over the keyboard; this ‘machine’ didn’t seem so threatening as the computer he’d had in his old library and it smelt…it smelt of new-ness of electricity of…he couldn’t quite put his finger on it but it smelt of the future. “Do you know how it works?”

“Yes!” Buffy almost clapped her hands with joy at not having upset Giles, “Willow totally gave me a quick lesson and I remember most of the stuff I learnt from school, so…”

“So?” Giles smiled down at the young woman at his side; he suddenly felt the urge to gather her in his arms and kiss her.

“Giles?” Buffy said softly as pulled away from Giles’ lips, “Erm…I should go check on dinner.”

“Oh!” Giles let go of Buffy as if she’d suddenly become red hot, “Oh course…” he coughed to cover his embarrassment, “…yes-yes do that.”

Watching as Buffy rushed into the kitchen, Giles cursed himself for taking advantage of his slayer like that, it was unforgivable, but, at the same time it had felt so right. He sighed and picked up his wine glass, sipping at the rather pleasant wine it contained he shook his head. He really needed to find out what had happened to them before he did something he would regret for the rest of his life.

How did they come to be here and why were they here? These were two very good questions that he’d so far failed to find an answer to. So, far his research appeared to suggest that his and Buffy’s little side trip into this reality was as the result of a spell or possibly a very powerful wish originating in their home reality. Whatever had happened to them must have been caused by something in their reality because, in this reality magic simply didn’t exist. In fact in this reality there wasn’t even a hint of the supernatural.

He’d spent some time that afternoon looking for evidence of myths or fairy tails, he’d found nothing. Yes there were ‘Folk Tales’ in which princess’ still got locked up in towers and were rescued by gallant knights. Children invariably got lost in the forest and had to be rescued by kindly woodsmen who saved them from wolves. But there were no witches in gingerbread houses, no dragons, no talking bears with bowls of overly hot porridge, no magic beans. Not a hint of vampires or werewolves and demons could he find. There wasn’t even any concept of a heaven or hell and as for the word ‘God’, it wasn’t even in the dictionary.

“Here you are, Giles,” Buffy put Giles’ dinner on the table and quickly laid out knives and forks for both of them before going back to the kitchen to collect her own meal.

As he sat down at the table he watched Buffy move about the kitchen before coming back out to join him at the table. Whatever had caused them to come here, he told himself, it was slowly but surely altering their social mores, one day very soon if they weren’t both very careful they’d find themselves doing…well, Giles didn’t want to think what he might find himself and Buffy doing; because he’d just realised he didn’t feel that bad about doing it anymore.

“About earlier,” Giles said as he ate, “I’m sorry, I overstepped my bounds it won’t happen again,” even as he said the words he knew he couldn’t guarantee that he wouldn’t try to kiss Buffy or do something worse!

“Don’t worry about it,” Buffy smiled at him across the table, “remember what I wanted you to do on our first night here?”

“Oh yes!” Giles forced a laugh, he did indeed remember the way Buffy had sat in his lap, the short skirt she’d been wearing and the panties she hadn’t. “I’d almost forgotten all about the incident….”

An uncomfortable silence fell over the pair of them broken only by the sounds made by the knives and forks on their plates as they ate.

“W-why don’t you tell me about what you’ve discovered about this Sunnydale?” Giles suggested in a frantic effort to break the silence.

“Oh, yeah,” Buffy picked up her glass of water and sipped delicately, “Willow showed me how to use this ‘search engine’ thing.”

“Indeed,” Giles nodded, “you’ll have to show me later but first tell me what you found.”

“Right,” Buffy cleared her throat preparing herself to speak, “this Sunnydale and our Sunnydale are very similar,” she began. “They were both founded within a couple of years of each other and have about the same population. The main differences appear to be that this Sunnydale has more defence industries based here, must be because of the war with these Pan Asian people.”

“Hmmm,” Giles muttered to show he was paying attention.

“There’s a Camp Sunnydale,” Buffy explain, “its some sort of army supply base and there’s a Marine air base a little further up the coast that was a civilian airport in our reality.”

“This is all very interesting Buffy but what about crime?” Giles hinted.

“Oh this is totally going to knock you out,” Buffy almost laughed, “Do you know how many murders there were in Sunnydale last year?”

“I take it you mean in this Sunnydale?” Giles watched Buffy nod her head, “Then I can’t even begin to imagine.”

“None!’ Buffy replied simply.

“None?” Giles gave Buffy a puzzled look, “You’re sure you….”

“I checked,” Buffy said firmly, “1998 no murders, 1997 two murders, 1996 one murder, which seems to be about the average.”

“Not that I’m not relieved,” Giles said slowly, “but do you know why?”

“I’ve only looked back a couple more years but most murders tend to be caused by people drinking too much or getting into arguments.” Buffy explained, “Domestic violence is near zero as are deaths committed during the course of another crime.”

“So what do the police do all day?” Giles wanted to know, “Drink coffee and eat doughnuts?”

“You mean like our PD used to?” Buffy shrugged, “They seem to patrol a lot and break up bar fights and chase thieves,” Buffy smiled, “these people might not kill each other much but they’re not angels.”

“So what about that murdered family we saw this morning?” Giles asked.

“Yeah,” Buffy sighed sadly, “that’s really screwed up the crime figures. While that sort of killing sometimes happens in the big cities it’s still incredibly rare so the local police are a little out of their depth here.”

“Have you been able to find a cause of death?” Giles wanted to know.

“Not yet,” Buffy admitted, “I’ll need Willow to help be get into a few data bases…it seems Willow is a bit of a computer whiz here like she is in our world.”

“When can she come over?” Giles asked urgently.

“I’ll call her and ask her to come over tomorrow night,” Buffy suggested, “if that’s okay with you?”

“Yes of course,” Giles stood up and started to clear away the dinner things, “this multiple murder, I think you’re right, even by our Sunnydale standards it seems more than a little odd,” Giles said as he started on the washing up, “demons rarely actually went into people’s homes to kill them and of course vampires can’t....”

“Unless they’re invited,” Buffy picked up a tea towel and started to dry the dinner things as Giles washed them, “and if people don’t know about vampires…?”

“They could easily ask one in by mistake,” Giles looked down at his soapy hands for a moment wondering if something had come into this reality at the same time as they’d arrived.

“Giles,” Buffy intruded on Giles’ dark thoughts, “about earlier…you know…‘the kiss’?”

“Yes I’m most frightfully sorry,” Giles turned to look down at Buffy, “it won’t happen again.”

“Erm, Giles,” Buffy grinned, “I was going to say I don’t mind if you totally kiss me…y’know…like that, it was…” Buffy struggled for the right words, “…it was kinda nice.”

0=0=0=0


	9. Chapter 9

9.

**The Harris Residence, Thursday evening.**

Climbing off her bike, Willow wheeled it up the path to Xander’s front door. Leaving it at the foot of the four steps that led up to the veranda, she skipped happily up the stairs, paused to straighten her skirt and top before lifting her hand and knocking on the door. It took a while for anyone to answer and Willow started to think that Xander and his father weren’t in. After a few more seconds, however, the door was opened by Mr Harris senior.

“Hello Mr Harris,” Willow cried happily on seeing her soon to be Father-in-law, “is Xander in?”

“Ah Willow!” Mr Harris smiled, “Pretty as a picture, as usual.”

“Oh Mr Harris…” Willow blushed to match her hair, Xander’s dad always said the sweetest of things to her.

“Come in, come in,” Mr Harris stood to one side to let Willow into the house before closing the door behind her, “he’s in his room, said something about not feeling well.”

“He did?” Willow frowned with concern, “I better go see.”

“Well,” Mr Harris coughed wetly making Willow frown even more, Mr Harris wasn’t a well man, “you know where his room is.”

To tell the truth Mr Harris senior had been a drunk and a violent drunk at that. But on the day that his wife had been knocked down and killed by a drunk driver, he’d changed. Instead of retreating further into the bottle, he’d started to go to AA meetings; he’d been sober for ten years now. He’d rebuilt his construction company until it was now at the point that in another two or three years it would be one of the largest house building concerns in northern California. Unfortunately the years of alcohol abuse had fatally weaken Mr Harris’ health and although they didn’t talk about it much he wasn’t expected to live much more than another five or six years. Willow hoped he’d live long enough to see his first grandchild born.

Bursting into Xander’s room without knocking, Willow gave a little cry of alarm when she saw her fiancé lying on his bed groaning. Kneeling at the side of his bed, she checked his pulse and placed a hand on his forehead. His pulse was racing and his forehead was on fire!

“Do you know if he went to the Emergency Room today, Mr Harris?” Willow tried to be professional and keep the tremor out of her voice but she couldn’t quite manage it.

“No,” Mr Harris shook his head as he stared down at his son and soon to be daughter, “at least he never said anything to me.”

“Would you mind calling an ambulance,” Willow looked up at Xander’s father, “we need to get him to the hospital now!”

0=0=0=0

**Sunnydale PD Headquarters, Friday morning.**

“Chief,” Detective Stein acknowledged his boss with a nod as he closed the door to Chief Reddy’s office.

“Morning Jim,” Chief Reddy indicated that Stein should sit down and waited until the detective had settled himself before speaking again. “Sorry to bother you like this, but the Mayor’s on my back about the Craig murders.”

“Yeah,” Stein nodded, “I saw him on the local news last night,” he shook his head, a wry smile on his lips, “anyone would think he was leading the investigation himself.”

“Yeah,” Chief Reddy gave a low chuckle, the Mayor could be pretty intense at times, “so, what do I tell him at this morning’s briefing?”

“You’ve seen the autopsy reports?” Stein began and got a nod off the Chief, “Forensics have turned up some fingerprints that don’t belong to the Craigs’.” Stein paused to order his thoughts before continuing, “Most turned out to be friends of the Craig kids but there was one set that we haven’t been able to identify…”

“You think they belong to the murderer?” the Chief sat forward in his chair hanging on to Stein’s every word.

“Well,” Stein shrugged, “they’re the best lead we have so far, unfortunately they’re not in any of the databases.”

“Damn-it!” Chief Reddy banged his fist on the table making Stein start with surprise, “Tell me you’ve got something else.”

“Look,” Stein gave a tired grin, “it’s more what we haven’t found.”

“Explain?” 

“Well, Chief,” Stein shifted in his seat, “we’ve found no evidence of any animal so it looks like the dog and chimpanzee theories are out.”

“So a man did this?” the Chief gasped horrified at the very thought, “Sick bastard!” 

“We’ve had a couple of pieces of luck though,” Stein didn’t appear to be too happy as he explained, “A neighbour boy said he saw a tall man in what looked like a long black leather coat…”

“Like a Duster?” Chief Reddy asked.

“Yeah,” Stein nodded his head; he’d not thought of it like that but, yes like a cowboy’s ‘duster’, “anyway,” he went on with the sketchy description, “as I say tall, at least six foot, dark, possibly black hair and a pronounced forehead…” Stein paused, “…not much I know but it’s all we’ve got so far.”

“So you’re looking for a tall, dark haired guy in a leather duster with a high forehead and long sharp teeth?”

“That’s about it,” Stein agreed.

“Oh well its better than nothing, “Chief Reddy admitted, “you said you had a couple of things.”

“Nancy Craig,” Stein said simply.

“The girl who was kidnapped?” Reddy said slowly, “I can tell by the look on your face that she wasn’t found alive and unharmed.”

“Sorry Chief,” Stein went on to explain, “Night watchman found her half hidden behind a warehouse down at the docks, looked like the perp wanted us to find her.”

“Okay,” Chief Reddy sighed as he ran a hand over his face, “tell me the worse.”

“Only sign of injury were two puncture wounds on the side of her neck,” Stein shrugged in confusion, “and she was exsanguinated like all the others. The body’s in the morgue now, the ME will give us more in a few hours.”

“What is it with this guy and blood?” Chief Reddy wanted to know.

“I know,” agreed Stein, “but what I want to know is how he manages to commit these crimes without leaving quarts of blood on the floors and walls.”

“Yeah,” Chief Reddy’s voice dropped to a low menacing whisper, “when you catch this guy and I know you will Jim,” he Chief took a deep breath, “I won’t be too upset if he gets killed resisting arrest, y’know what I mean?”

“I think I do Chief,” Stein nodded, “I think I do.”

0=0=0=0

**The Giles’ Residence, Friday afternoon.**

Sitting on the edge of the couch, Buffy sipped her cup of tea; in this reality she obviously liked it because it tasted familiar on her tongue. Having spent the morning tidying and cleaning the apartment Buffy had come up with a couple of surprising things. First in Giles’ chest of drawers were he kept his clothes (she’d been putting away his clean and neatly folded laundry) she’d found a large box of condoms with ‘Approved by the League of American Mothers’ printed on the side.

Now she had a computer Buffy decided that the time had come to research these ‘American Mothers’, find out just what there agenda was. On one hand they appeared to be encouraging women to have large numbers of children, on the other they were handing out jumbo sized boxes of condoms. The thought struck her that this was probably the reason ‘other Buffy’ hadn’t got pregnant until now. This made Buffy smile; obviously the other reality Giles loved his Buffy so much that he’d not wanted her to get pregnant while she was still a relatively young teen.

It was either that or ‘other Giles’ was some kind of perv who wanted to have kinky sex with his teenage wife and not have it spoilt by her getting pregnant. Buffy didn’t think it was likely as she’d found nothing ‘kinky’ in the apartment (no whips or chains or anything like that). Also she just couldn’t imagine her Giles or indeed any possible Giles’ being into anything kinky like that.

The other thing she’d found that had concerned her was the military uniform, rifle and ammunition she’d found in the downstairs closet. Giles in the army? No way, not her Giles…but what about the other Giles? Perhaps he was in the army…but that didn’t make sense, she’d ask him about it when he got home. 

After a light lunch, Buffy had spent a couple of hours exercising and doing weapons practice the best she could in the confines of the apartment. Even with the furniture pushed back against the walls there wasn’t really enough room to do anything overly energetic without breaking stuff. At this point another thought hit her; exercise, the doctor had said, exercise was good for pregnant women, but how much and what sort? Buffy had the feeling that leaping about with a sword or an axe probably wasn’t on the approved list of exercises for pregnant ladies; she’d have to ask, in the mean time she’d go easy on herself.

However, she needed to keep in fighting trim just in case this murderer who’d killed all those people did turn out to be something other-worldly. People with no concept of anything ‘supernatural’ were in even more danger than the people of her own reality. Watching the TV as the news reporter broke the story about the police finding the kidnapped girl, Buffy had grown more and more certain that there was a vampire or some sort of demon on the loose. Sighing she stood up and switched off the TV news.

“This won’t do,” she told herself as she glanced at the clock on the mantel shelf.

Buffy headed for the kitchen, time was getting on and she still had dinner to prepare and then she’d need to shower and change into something nice for when Giles came home. None of these thoughts felt in anyway strange to her; in fact they seemed the most natural thing in the world for her to do. After all no man wanted to come home after a hard day at work to find that his wife hadn’t cooked the evening meal or made herself pretty for him, would they?”

0=0=0=0

**Willies Bar, later that afternoon.**

“The place is closed!” Mr Trick informed Willie’s clientele as he walked into the bar, “By order of the Mayor.”

“HEY!” Willie rushed out from behind his bar only to collide with Mr Trick’s fist, “OOOW!” Willie sat down hard on the floor and nursed his bleeding noise, “Hey!” he cried once again this time from between blooded fingers, “Ya can’t do that without a warrant or something.”

“I don’t need no warrant,” Mr Trick said as he lifted Willie single handed to his feet, “I work for Mayor Wilkins not the cops.”

“Yeah,” Willie agreed as he was placed unsteadily back on his feet, “I can see how that would make a difference.” Willie went back behind the bar and picked up a hand full of paper towels and tried to staunch his bleeding nose, “So what d’ya want, Trick?”

“That’s _Mr_ Trick to you,” Trick looked around the bar to make sure it was actually empty before going to lock the door; turning back to Willie he scowled, “Okay Willie…”

“That’s Mr Willie…” Willie began but was soon interrupted by Trick.

“You want that nose broken?” Trick asked nonchalantly.

“Not my first choice,” Willie admitted, “so what y’want?”

“The Craig murders,” Trick asked as he leaned against the bar being careful not to get spilt booz on his smart Italian suit, “what’s the word on the street?”

“Is that what you wanted to know?” Willie cried with just a small hint of anger, “If that’s all y’wanted to know about ya coulda asked!”

“Hey,” Trick smiled flashing white teeth in his dark face, “this way your customers will think I beat the information out of you,” Trick’s smile got wider, “of course if you want me to make it even more convincing?”

“NO!” Willie held his hands up to ward off the expected attack, “No!” he flinched, “I’ll tell you everything I know!”

“Good,” Trick nodded, “I thought you’d see it my way.”

“Look,” Willie began, “every body’s pissed at whoever’s doin’ these murders.”

“How so?” Trick wanted to know.

“Look,” Willie started to explain, “this is shakin’ up the cops who then shake up my customers…its bad for business.”

“Never mind all those innocent kids that were killed and their folks,” Trick said threateningly.

“Hey!” Willie exclaimed, “Of course they care, my clients aren’t heartless…we sent flowers to the surviving daughter and Mr Rodriguez has put a price on this sick bastard’s head, payable to whoever brings this guy down.”

“How much?” Trick asked.

“Twenty-five-thousand,” Willie replied and Trick whistled.

“So,” Trick continued as he walked along the bar, “anyone got any leads?”

“Paddy Quinn, says he saw someone weird down at the old Junior High School, y’know the one that had the gas explosion and nearly killed all those kids?” Willie said quickly.

“Weird? How weird?” Trick demanded, “Any description other than weird?”

“Hey-hey slow down,” Willie tried to wave Trick off but it didn’t work.

“You want me to beat on you some more?” Trick raised one hard looking fist.

“NO!” Willie cowered against the back of the bar, “Hey, let me think a sec…yeah that’s right…Paddy said this guy scared the crap outta him an’ y’know ya don’t put the frighteners on Paddy easy.”

“Yeah okay, so he’s a scary dude,” Trick shrugged, “I need more, was he black, white, Hispanic? Big, small, got a limp or something?”

“White,” Willie blurted out, “tall guy, long black coat, moves like he’s walkin’ on air or something!”

“Walkin’ on air?” Trick quieried.

“Yeah like he didn’t make a sound when he moved,” Willie explained, “Paddy had to have three doubles before his hands stopped shaking…”

“Right,” Trick smiled and nodded his head, “I think I might go visit with this scary dude, see who’s scariest.”

“Yeah,” Willie said with heart felt relief, “glad to have been of service.”

“Here,” Trick took a small roll of bills from his pocket and handed them to Willie, “with the thanks of a grateful town.”

“Hey,” Willie took the bills and quickly counted them before stuffing them into his pocket, “what about this,” he gestured to his face, “by customers are never gonna believe I gave it up for a bloody nose, ya better hit me again…but not so harAAAAGH!”

“Always glad to oblige,” Trick smiled as he examined his knuckles for damage, “see you around Willie,” Trick called over his shoulder as he left the bar.

0=0=0=0

**The Morgue, Sunnydale General Hospital, late afternoon.**

Making the last few stitches to close up the ‘Y’ shaped incision caused by the ME’s autopsy, Frank Hill wished he could do something more for the young girl lying on the cold hard slab as he worked on her. He knew from the ME’s records that she wasn’t much older than fifteen, she’d had her whole life ahead of her she’d not even got a serious boyfriend, or so he’d been told. Well, he thought, he’d do the best he could for her by making the stitches as small and neat as he could.

He was just about to start on the last half dozen stitches when he saw the girl’s body flinch as he pushed the needle into her flesh. Screaming in panicked surprise he jumped away from the body and stood there staring down at her. This couldn’t be right, he told himself, she couldn’t still be alive; he’d heard about people waking up in the morgue before but that was _before_ they’d been autopsied. The girl had had all her organs removed then replaced, she couldn’t be alive, he must be imagining things.

As his heart-rate dropped towards normal, Frank stepped back to stand next to the corpse intending to finish up before going and laughing about this with his buddies. He was just about to push the needle into the girl’s skin when her eyes flew open and she grabbed his neck with a claw like hand. Gasping for air, Frank tried to free himself from the clutches of the undead horror before him.

He tried to scream as the once cute girl sat up and turned her head to face him. Her eyes glowed with a red fire-like intensity and her face was horribly distorted. Opening her mouth she exposed bestial teeth, long and sharp like a wolf’s. Growling deep in her throat she seemed more animal that human. Suddenly, Frank Hill found himself being lifted off his feet as the monster pulled him towards her mouth. He smelt the fetid, corpse stench of her breath as she exhaled in his face. He was only aware of the stench for a few moments before she sank her teeth into his neck as he struggled weakly in her grasp.

Soon as she’d gorged on his blood and having drained her prey the thing that had once been Nancy Craig; who’d only wanted to grow up, find herself a good husband and be like her mom, cast Frank Hill’s empty husk of a body to one side. Not even bothering to wrap her body in the sheet that had covered her corpse, she headed for the door in search of more food.

0=0=0=0


	10. Chapter 10

10.

**The Giles’ Residence, late Friday afternoon.**

“What’s this Giles?” Buffy held up the army jacket and rifle she’d found as Giles walked in through the front door, “when did you join these ‘Sunnydale Minutemen’, huh?” Tears started to form in the corners of Buffy’s eyes, “Planning on running away and getting yourself shot are you?” she sobbed, “Leave me here by myself with a…,” Buffy almost said, ‘with a baby on the way’ but stopped herself just in time.

“I’ve no idea what you’re talking about Buffy or where those things came from,” Giles gestured to the rifle and camouflaged jacket she was holding up for his inspection; he’d thought there had been something wrong when Buffy hadn’t greeted him at the door, the sight of the rifle had almost made him duck back outside again. “It’s a complete mystery to me,” he sighed, “do you mind if we discuss this later? I’ve had a hard day at work.”

“You have?” Buffy’s tears dried up and her expression changed from one of mild annoyance and hurt to one of concern, “Oh poor Rupert!”

Try as he might Giles couldn’t detect any note of sarcasm in Buffy’s voice as she put down the rifle and jacket and rushed over to him.

“I’m so sorry Rupert,” Buffy took Giles’ briefcase from his hand before helping him off with jacket, “what happened?”

“One of the reasons I took the job as librarian, apart from it being a good cover for my Watcher duties,” Giles explained as he let Buffy lead him over to his chair, “was the belief that the youth of today couldn’t be bothered with books,” he sat down with a relieved sigh as Buffy fixed him a stiff drink. “While this was true in our Sunnydale the young men of this Sunnydale seem to be vociferous readers always taking out and returning books,” he took a sip of his whisky, “I’m thinking of asking Snyder for an assistant.”

“Quite right, sweetheart,” Buffy agreed as she hovered next to his chair, “expecting you to look after that great big library all by yourself.”

Once again Giles caught no hint of sarcasm in Buffy’s words; in fact he started to think how nice it was to have someone so understanding and supportive to come home to…even if she did occasionally wave rifles at him.

“Do you want dinner now or do you want to wait?” Buffy asked, “Remember Willow’s coming over to help with research.”

“Oh yes that’s right,” Giles put down his glass, “we better have it now and I’ll put away those things…” he gestured at the military gear, “…where did you find them?”

“Back of the closet,” Buffy called as she headed into the kitchen.

As he got up, Giles found his eyes following Buffy’s form as she walked into the kitchen; she was wearing one of the short almost backless dresses she seemed to favour since there arrival in ‘Alternative Sunnydale’. Obviously the influence of this new world they’d found themselves in was causing Buffy to change in a number of subtle and not so subtle ways. He of course was almost totally unaffected.

0=0=0=0

**The Giles’ Residence, later on Friday evening.**

“I’ll get that!” Buffy called at the sound of a knock on the door.

Before Giles had even had a chance to stir from his chair, Buffy had run from the kitchen and pausing only to check that the room was neat and tidy, opened the front door.

“Willow!” Buffy cried happily at the sight of her friend.

“Buffy!” the two young women exchanged hugs, before Willow asked, “I hope it’s alright but I brought Xander,” she stepped aside to allow Buffy to see her other old friend, “it seems I can’t trust him by himself…”

Buffy could tell Willow was cross because her eyebrows had knitted together into one long, narrow, red line above her eyes.

“Hi Buffy,” Xander called from behind Willow, he waved his hand weakly.

“What’s up?” Buffy stood aside to allow her two friends in; as he past her, she noticed that Xander didn’t look so well.

“Go and sit down on the couch and don’t touch anything or get bitten,” Willow instructed her fiancé.

“I hope you’re not this bossy when we’re married,” Xander said feebly as he shuffled across the room and sat down on the couch; he looked at Giles, “Hi Rupert, how’s wedded bliss?”

“Who said we’re still going to get married?” Willow replied as she took off her jacket to reveal the short pleated skirt and matching crop top she was wearing.

There was an audible groan from Giles as he realised he’d be spending the evening with two young woman who were wearing clothes that left more of them exposed than they actually covered.

“Cool top,” Buffy commented, “anyone want anything to drink? Snacks?”

“Thanks,” Willow walked over to the table where the computer stood, “As you might have noticed,” Willow continued as Buffy went to get soda’s and snacks, “Xander is very nearly facing a life of loneliness and sexual abstinence because ‘a’ he got bit by a dog and ‘b’ he let it get infected even after I’d cleaned and redressed it!” Willow took a soda off Buffy, “Thanks, how’s Dawnie, by the way?” Willow asked after giving Xander a hard look, “I bet she didn’t let herself get bitten and all septicy.”

“No,” Buffy shook her head, “she’s the one that does the biting and she’s fine, thank-you; she wasn’t hurt just shaken up a bit.”

“Good,” Willow gave a smile before asking, “I hope it totally hasn’t spoilt her relationship with Spike?”

“Oh no,” Buffy shook her head, “Dawn and Spike are like still _real_ close…”

“Oh good,” Willow sat down in front of the computer and switched it one, “so, what can I help you with?”

Turning to look at Giles, Buffy gave the floor to her husband; this was his sort of thing, explaining things to people who didn’t believe in the supernatural.

“I…” Giles glanced at Buffy, “…I mean ‘we’ need some help with a little research.”

“Oh that’s like totally easy,” Willow smiled as she started to type, “what do you need to know?”

“I…we,” Giles hesitated for a moment, what he was about to ask Willow to do was probably illegal, “well…to put it in a nut shell…we need to read the autopsy reports on that family who were murdered the other day…”

“WHAT!?” Willow stood up and stepped away from the computer, “B-but why?”

“That’s not all,” Giles continued, “we also need to see the police reports and see the crime scene photos.”

“Hey Rupert,” Xander pushed himself to his feet and turned to face Giles, “that’s way illegal I’m not letting Willow hack into official files like that!”

“Hey, septic-boy,” Willow turned her attention on Xander, “I don’t need you to tell me what I can or can’t hack into, we’re totally not married yet, you know?”

“Does that mean we’re still getting married?” Xander asked hopefully.

“‘Spose,” Willow pouted like a five year old.

“Oh thank-you Willow,” Xander rushed across the room and hugged his girlfriend, “I thought…”

“Hey,” Willow shrugged in Xander’s embrace, “what’s a septic hand between childhood sweethearts?”

“Heart-warming though this reconciliation is,” Giles interrupted, “we still need to see those files.”

“Again with the ‘why’?” Willow asked as she turned to face Giles while keeping one arm firmly around Xander’s waist.

“What would you say if I told you that we think the perpetrator of these vile crimes was something ‘otherworldly’?”

“Why?” Willow frowned at Giles and Buffy, “Do you think that’s something you might say?”

“‘Otherworldly’?” Xander asked, “You mean like aliens?”

“No…” Giles began but was interrupted by Willow.

“Like it’s a mathematical certainty that other intelligences exists somewhere in the galaxy…” Willow pointed out.

“…but they’re hardly going to travel all the way here just to start to murder people,” Xander finished Willow’s thought for her.

“Thank-you honey,” Willow kissed Xander lightly on the lips, “that’s just what I was going to say…”

“Look!” Giles almost shouted with frustration, “Not aliens, perhaps ‘otherworldly’ was a bad choice of words, how about ‘supernatural’?”

“Something more than ‘natural’?” Willow frowned as she glanced at Xander, “that’s silly…”

“Alright then,” Giles tried again, “how about this; contrary to popular myth the world didn’t begin as a paradise…”

“Of course it didn’t,” Willow laughed, “First you had like the molten ball of rock then that totally cooled down and after a while you got the like little squidgy things…”

“Then you got the squidgy things with lots of legs…” Xander continued with the story of life on Earth.

“…and then there were like amphibians…” Willow added seamlessly.

“…and reptiles…” Xander grinned

“…and then…” Willow was about to go on but Giles stopped her.

“Enough!” he cried.

“Hey!” Xander complained, “We haven’t got to the best part yet…”

“DINOSAURS!” Willow and Xander chorused like two five year olds.

“Buffy?” Giles gestured to Buffy as he sat down in his chair and held his head in his hands.

“What?” Buffy looked from Giles to Xander and Willow and then back to Giles.

“Try to explain to your friends about…” Giles made some vague hand gestures in the air, “…about, you know…”

Buffy looked nervously at all the faces turned towards her, “More snacks, anyone?” she asked before retreating to the kitchen once more.

“Look,” Giles sighed as he stood up again, “Buffy and I think that whoever is committing these dastardly crimes is un-natural and possibly from another plain of existence.”

“Other plains of existence are theoretically possible,” Willow pointed out.

“That’s my girl,” Xander pulled Willow closer, “brains as well as beauty.”

“Awww,” Willow went all silly for a moment, “you wanna totally make out later?”

“Good grief,” Giles signed once more, “look this is serious, people are dying here.”

“She reads a lot,” Xander nodded to Willow.

“So,” Willow became a little more serious as she fought off Xander’s wandering hand, “you think something has come through a portal or something, from another reality and is like killing people?”

“At last!” Giles rolled his eyes, “Exactly…”

“And Buffy helped you come up with this?” Willow said quietly after glancing over at the kitchen where Buffy was still fixing snacks, “I mean Giles,” Willow’s voice had dropped to a whisper, “Buffy? I mean she’s a sweet girl and I totally love her to bits, but…”

“But?” Giles gave Willow a puzzled frown.

“Like, come on Rupert,” Willow smiled, “this is Buffy right? She’s sweet and pretty and helpful; I’m sorry and I know she’s your wife an’all, but she’s not the brightest quarter in the till.”

“Snacks!” Buffy came out of the kitchen holding a plate of snacks in each hand; she immediately started to wonder why everyone was staring at her again.

“Look, Willow,” everyone’s eyes snapped over to Giles, “can you chop, or whatever they call it, into these records and get me the information I need without getting yourself into trouble?”

“If you really want me to,” Willow admitted uncertainly.

“Look I’m putting my foot down here,” Xander held onto Willow protectively, “if the police come looking I’m saying you made her do it, Rupert.”

“Fair enough,” Giles nodded, “now the files if you please?”

“Please Xander,” Buffy said quietly as Xander went and sat down on the couch again, “have a snack.”

Turning to Buffy, Xander took pity on her, she looked like a kicked puppy, “Here,” he took a plate of snacks from Buffy’s hand, “Buffy-snacks,” he grinned as he picked one up, “Willow might make wonderful cookies but Buffy-snacks are the best…but don’t tell Willow I said that!”

Grinning he took the plate so he could give the Buffy-snacks the attention they deserved.

A little relieved that the evening hadn’t been a total disaster, Buffy put down the other plate of snacks and went to stand next to Giles while he stood over Willow as she typed on the computers keyboard; she put her arm around him and rested her head against his arm, she sighed contentedly as Giles put his arm around her.

“There we go,” Willow stopped typing and used the mouse to navigate around the ME’s web site, she clicked on an icon and brought up some pictures of the Craig family autopsies. “Ewww, totally gross!”

“I thought you were a nurse,” Giles said as he bent down to get a closer look.

“Yeah,” Willow pulled a face as she clicked through the images, “for, moms and babies an’ stuff, not…” she made a face as she gestured at the screen, “…not this icky stuff…Oh that reminds me,” Willow looked up at Buffy, “everything okay? No more sickiness or…” Willow noticed Buffy’s frantic signals for her to shut up, “…okay,” Willow shrugged, obviously Buffy hadn’t told Rupert she was pregnant yet.

“Is there anyway we can print these out?” Giles asked.

“If you had a printer,” Willow giggled, “but I can put them into a file and store them on your computer and…” Willow typed and clicked the mouse busily, “…if you’re gonna do this sort of thing again, I’ll just make it so that when you switch off you wipe your search history…” after a few more key strokes, Willow sat back with a satisfied sigh. “Now if you’ve finished with me helping you break however many State and Federal laws, I better get Septic-boy home.”

“Thank-you Willow!” Giles said excitedly as he sat down to study the autopsy photos some more.

“Come on, Mr Gangrene,” Willow went over to Xander and hauled him to his feet.

“Next time you come over,” Buffy promised, “we’ll make it a nice evening with snacks and maybe games and definitely no icky photographs.”

0=0=0=0

After leaving Buffy and Giles’ apartment, Willow helped Xander up the stairs to street level.

“What was all that about?” Xander asked, “I mean, otherworldly and supernatural…?”

“Perhaps the strain of being married to Buffy has finally made Rupert snap,” Willow said with a shrug.

“Hey, what’s the downer on Buffy?” Xander wanted to know, “I thought you were bestest buds.”

“We are but…” Willow pulled Xander to a halt and turned him to face her, “…maybe I’m just a little jealous of her.”

“Of Buffy!?” Xander looked in surprise at his soon to be wife, “Its coz I like Buffy’s snacks more than yours isn’t?”

“NO!” Willow punched Xander’s shoulder.

“OW!” Xander complained as he rubbed his arm.

“She’s got stuff I want to have and…well…,” Willow gave up and shrugged.

“Hey look,” Xander replied brightly, “I’ve still got that surprise for you only now we’ll have to leave it ‘til Sunday.”

“Oh yeah,” Willow brightened, “I totally forgot about that.”

The young couple walked on until they reached Xander’s pick-up, “You better let me drive,” Willow said as she started to search Xander’s pockets for the keys.

“HEY!” Xander wriggled about as his girlfriend rifled through his pant’s pockets.

“You wanna make out when we get home?” Willow asked as she unlocked the passenger door.

“Sorry, Will,” Xander replied sadly and held up his bandaged hand, “but I don’t think I’m capable.”

“Xander Harris!” Willow gasped, “You must be sick, look don’t worry I’ll do all the work, all you have to do is totally lie there, okay?”

“Okay,” Xander grinned as he climbed into the passenger seat.

0=0=0=0

“Vampire,” Buffy said after getting into bed next to Giles, she snuggled up close and rested her head against his chest.

“Definitely,” Giles agreed as he let himself put his arm around Buffy’s shoulder.

“Then I’ll have to hunt it down and slay it,” Buffy pointed out.

“Well that is the point of being the Slayer,” Giles confirmed.

“Rupert…?” Buffy asked slowly.

“Hmm, yes?” Giles replied as he took off his glasses and put them on his night stand.

“As I’m going to have to battle this fiend from hell,” Buffy moved her leg so it was resting on top of Rupert’s, “I was wondering if we could…you know…just this once…huh? Pretty please?”

Giles suddenly found himself going very stiff in more ways than one.

0=0=0=0


	11. Chapter 11

11.

**Sunnydale General Hospital, early Friday evening.**

Climbing slowly from his car, Chief Reddy looked around at the controlled chaos that was the parking lot at Sunnydale General Hospital. There were nurses, firemen, police, ambulance crews and people who’d simply turned up to see if they could help; and the reason for all this activity? Well, to be honest he wasn’t one-hundred percent sure; he stepped out of the way to avoid being run down by a nurse and a fireman who were pushing a bed with a patient in it. The reports he’d received were sketchy and confusing; depending on who you listened to either a wild animal had got into the hospital or a lunatic had escaped from the mental ward.

Either way there had been casualties and somewhere along the way someone had ordered the evacuation of the hospital and this was what he was witnessing now. Sunnydale General was a large hospital that served not only Sunnydale’s needs but also those of several smaller towns nearby that only had medical centres. Dodging between the beds that were being pushed to the other side of the parking lot furthest away from the hospital, Reddy looked around for the police command centre. Seeing nothing, he grabbed hold of the first cop he saw.

“Command Post?” Reddy demanded of the young patrolman who was helping a very pregnant woman to safety.

“Over there, Chief,” the officer pointed to a small cluster of patrol cars and police vans.

“Thank-you,” Chief Reddy started to turn and go and find out who was in charge of his ‘cluster-fuck’, he’d been a Marine and he knew all about ‘cluster fucks’, “and good work, son,” he called out after the officer.

Striding across the parking lot, Chief Reddy started to notice several officers standing around the vehicles he was heading for, they appeared to be speaking into microphones or studying plans spread out on the hoods of the cars. The vans belonged to the Sunnydale PD Swat team and the Swat teams from Oxnard and Ventura. It was only then that Chief Reddy started to appreciate the full seriousness of the situation.

“Who’s in charge here?” Chief Reddy demanded as he pushed himself into the circle of police vehicles.

“I am Chief, Lt Chamberlain,” a uniformed officer called out.

“Sam,” Reddy walked over to where Chamberlain stood around a map with several other officers, “glad its you in charge, what’s going on here?”

“Chief,” Chamberlain gestured for the officers with him to get on with what they were doing while he dealt with the ‘brass’, “at about five-thirty this afternoon a wild animal or possibly a homicidal maniac got into the hospital and started killing staff and patients…”

“Who many?” Reddy asked as the blood drained from his face.

“That we know of,” Chamberlain paused for a moment, “two staff and four patients…”

“Good grief!” Reddy gasped, “W-what are you doing now?”

“As you see we’re getting the hospital evacuated,” Chamberlain gestured to all the people running for safety across the parking lot. “I’ve got the Ventura and Oxnard Swat guys covering the exits in case whatever’s in there tries to get out and our own Swat team is prepping to go in and take this mother down.”

“Good,” Reddy nodded his head, “good work, carry on,” the Chief pointed to the map on the hood of the patrol car behind Sam Chamberlain, “what’s this?”

“Plan of the hospital, Chief,” Chamberlain stood aside to let Reddy see the plan.

“Now show me where you’ve got your men deployed,” Chief Reddy knew the Mayor would want to know everything when he turned up.

As he listened to Chamberlain’s plan and assessment of the situation, Reddy pondered on the fact that more people had died violently in Sunnydale over the last few days than had over the last ten years. What was happening to his town? This was worse than some of the ghettoes in LA. Dragging his thoughts back to the problem in hand, Reddy nodded as he listened to Chamberlain’s explanation as to why he wasn’t sending more men into the building. The explanation was simply practical; the Swat teams from Ventura and Oxnard, while being good cops and brave men simply weren’t as well trained or equipped as Sunnydale Swat. I was only sensible that Chamberlain used them to cordon off the building rather than send them inside.

“Good,” Reddy nodded as Chamberlain came to the end of his presentation, “good piece of work, Sam,” Reddy patted the younger officer on the shoulder encouragingly, “when will you be ready to send our guys in?”

“Soon as I’ve got confirmation that the building’s clear, Chief,” Chamberlain replied.

“Good man…” Chief Reddy would have said more but he’d seen the Mayor and his Deputy moving about the crowd of medical staff and patients; he knew that as soon as the Mayor had stopped ‘glad-handing’ people he’d be over at the command post wanting to take charge. “As soon as you’re ready, son, get your men into the hospital,” he pointed over to where the mayor was now talking to a camera crew from the local TV news, “I’ll try to keep ‘Biggus Dickus’ off your back.”

“Thanks Chief,” Chamberlain watched for a moment as the Chief walked towards the Mayor; for a moment he was glad he didn’t have to deal with the Mayor on an almost daily basis like the Chief. “Okay men,” Chamberlain turned his eyes from the Chief to the Swat team awaiting his orders, “get into position.”

0=0=0=0

After checking his weapon one last time, Sergeant Ellis of Sunnydale Swat, led his team of half-a-dozen men towards the main entrance. His job was to distract whoever or whatever was killing people in the hospital while Lt Buford entered the building through a side entrance. Once inside he was to start sweeping through the ground floor while the guys from Oxnard Swat covered their backs.

Pausing at the half open glass door, Ellis scanned the deserted entrance hall over the top of his MP5. Seeing nothing unusual or dangerous he led his men into the building. Taking position behind a pillar he once again scanned his surroundings, it was too much to hope that whatever was killing people would present itself to be shot straight away, that would be too much to ask. Seeing only evidence of the rapid departure made by the staff and patients, Ellis signalled his team to start searching by twos. The search plan had been agreed before they’d entered the building and each team knew their assigned sectors.

Taking the lead in his pair, Ellis started to move down a long corridor which was partially blocked by abandoned gurneys and other medical equipment. Scanning right and left, Ellis was suddenly faced by a dilemma; what to do about closed doors? Should he check behind each one or should he ignore them and only check offices with open doors. If it was an animal they were after then he was safe to leave the closed doors unchecked, animals didn’t open and close doors. If it was a person, however, there could be a homicidal maniac waiting behind any one of those doors, axe in hand. Rationalising that speed was of the essence and they could always check later, Ellis decided he wasn’t going to worry about closed doors just now.

Moving swiftly and silently along the corridor, Ellis came to one of those open doors. Signalling to his partner the two men took up position on either side of the doorway. Looking carefully around the edge of the door, Ellis checked the interior for signs of life. Unfortunately the door was only half open which left most of the room hidden from his view, they’d have to go inside.

Lifting his left hand, Ellis counted down on his fingers, as soon as he got to ‘fist’ the two men burst into the room quickly and efficiently, Ellis going high and his partner, Officer Alvarez, going low. Sweeping the room with their weapons ready to blast anything hostile to bloody ruin, Ellis sighed with relief, there was nothing and no one there.

“Okay, clear,” he said quietly before turning to go back out into the corridor.

Following Alvarez out of the room, Ellis found his partner stumbling back against him and almost knocking the MP5 from his hand.

“What the...?” Ellis began but the next words he was about to say died in his mouth as he saw the apparition sanding in the doorway.

“SHOOT IT!” screamed Alvarez as he knelt on the floor struggling with his weapon.

Letting hours of training take over, Ellis aimed and fired. The creature disappeared behind his muzzle flash, but he was sure he’d hit whatever it was; he’d had an impression of a pale human-like form before he’d fired but now he wasn’t so sure.

“You okay?” Ellis asked Alvarez as he covered the door.

“Yeah,” Alvarez climbed to his feet, “Weapon jammed, its okay now…”

Still had the safety on more like, thought Ellis, it was a simple mistake to make but it could so easily be a fatal mistake.

“Okay lets see what we’ve got,” Ellis moved to take position by the open door; bursting out into the corridor he found nothing, no body and no blood, “What the…” Ellis began, “…I’m sure I hit it.”

“I’m sure you did too,” Alvarez scanned the corridor behind them, “it’d be harder to miss at that range than hit.”

“Yeah right, but where is the fucker?” Ellis snapped as he heard someone call him over his radio, after taking a deep breath he answered, “Ellis here, that was me firing,” he checked the corridor again for any sign of the creature, there was none. “We spotted the creature we’re in corridor ‘E’ outside room G28…no we didn’t get it,” Ellis listened to the next question before replying, “Looked almost human like a hairless ape or something, we’re going to sweep south along the corridor and see if we can reacquire the target.”

Signing off, Ellis led Alvarez down the corridor and he wondered if this was the ape that the guy had used to kill all those people the other night. If it was, next time he saw it he’d be sure to hit it and bring it down. As he moved he listened with half an ear as Lt Chamberlain directed reinforcements towards the corridor. Coming to a junction, Ellis signalled for a halt, waiting for a pause in the radio chatter he reported in.

“Okay,” Ellis began, “we’ve come to the junction of corridor ‘E’ and ‘F’, which way do I go?”

Before he got an answer the ceiling seemed to explode above him and ceiling tiles dropped from above before clattering to the corridor floor. There in front of him squatted the beast, it was so close that he could clearly see its hideously distorted face, its long crooked fangs and the drool that dripped from is mouth. Before he’d even had a chance to shout a warning the thing had moved with blinding speed lashing out at Alvarez. Screaming in agony as the creature’s claw like fingers ripped through his body armour and laid open his stomach, Alvarez fell to the floor as a fan of blood appeared on the white hospital walls and across the floor and ceiling. Clutching his stomach, blood gushing over his hands and down his legs, Alvarez staggered and fell at the creature’s feet. 

Pulling the trigger of his MP5, Ellis watched in horror as his rounds blew a myriad of holes in the creature’s torso yet it wouldn’t go down. Backing off as the creature snarled at him menacingly, Ellis threw away his empty MP5 and drew the .45 automatic pistol he kept for close encounters like this. He’d only just got the pistol free of his holster when the creature attacked. Later forensic examination would show that Ellis hit the creature twice before it killed him. The big, soft nosed slugs blew chunks out of the creature but it didn’t stop until after it had turned Ellis’ bloody into a bloody mess only recognisable by the name tag on his body armour.

0=0=0=0

Outside the hospital Officers Bloem and Hernandez were part of the outer cordon and to be honest they’d had nothing much to do since the first mad rush to get everyone out of the hospital. In fact things had got so quiet that Bloem had been extolling the virtues of nurses as wives to Hernandez. His own wife of nearly twenty years had been a nurse and still worked part-time at a local medical centre. Hernandez had been forced to split-up with his girlfriend of two years because her father had set her bride price so high that he’d never save enough money to pay it off. Obviously Sally’s parents didn’t want her marrying a lowly Patrolman.

Just as Bloem was beginning to think that it was going to be a bust and nothing was going to happen after all, the sound of firing came to his ears. Looking over towards the hospital, Bloem and Hernandez could see the muzzle flashes of automatic weapons strobbing in the night.

“Everyone get down,” Bloem drew his sidearm and started to move the small crowd that had formed at the edge of the cordon back.

Watching, the hospital, Hernandez pulled his pistol from its holster and checked that it was loaded. Suddenly he felt how inadequate his service pistol looked. Walking over to his unit he opened the trunk and took out the riot gun clipped to the lid. Feeling a lot more confident he jacked the first round into the breach and turned to go back and join Bloem. As he did so he saw something ghostly white jump from an upstairs window. It landed on the tarmac of the parking lot amid a shower of broken glass. It looked white almost luminous as it crouched there looking around deciding which way to go.

“Oh shit!” Hernandez said softly as he raised the butt of the riot gun to his shoulder and took aim.

No sooner had he got his sights on the monster that it moved. It sort of bounded across the parking lot in a series of rapid jumps each one bringing the horror directly towards him. As the monster got closer and closer he was able to see more detail, the misshapen face, the bullet wounds that didn’t leak blood the strange scar down the front of its body. Hearing the crack of Bloem’s pistol as he stated to fire, Hernandez waited until the creature was gathering itself for another jump. 

He fired just as the creature started its leap, the round hit it squarely in the chest blowing it off its feet and onto its back where it lay for a moment or two. Watching in horrified fascination, Hernandez saw the creature start to pick itself up ready to continue its escape. Not giving the creature time to stand, Hernandez started to advance on the creature firing as he moved. The double-oh shot hit the creature’s body doing terrible damage but still it wouldn’t stay down. Hernandez was standing over the creature now as it lay snarling and hissing at him, it gathered its legs beneath it ready to attack. He was vaguely aware of Bloem yelling at him to get back, to get away; but today Hernandez wasn’t listening to his partner.

Drawing a bead on the creature, Hernandez fired just as the monster sprang at him reaching for his throat with its wickedly sharp finger nails. If the monster hadn’t launched its attack just when it did it would have probably killed Hernandez and got away. However, instead of hitting the creature in the chest the spray of buckshot hit it in the head causing it to explore. It’s head and that part of its once human brain that had controlled the most primitive functions was now destroyed. The monster crashed into Hernandez knocking him to the floor but doing no more damage to him other than a concussion and nasty cut on the back of the head.

0=0=0=0

**Sunnydale General Hospital, later that night.**

Smiling to himself, Officer Bloem looked into Hernandez’s room to find three, young, attractive nurses almost fighting each other for the honour of looking after his partner. Stepping into the room, Bloem coughed quietly to get the nurses attention.

“Hey,” he smiled in a fatherly way at the nurses, “I’m sure there’s people around who really need your help more than Pete does…”

Giving the police officer guilty looks the three nurses filled out of the room to go help with getting people back into the hospital.

“Hey,” Pete complained, “I was enjoying that!”

“Yeah, I bet you were,” Bloem pulled over a chair and sat down, “how’s your head?”

“Sore,” Pete Hernandez shrugged, “headache’s the worst.”

“Yeah, concussion,” Bloem nodded wisely, “but you’ve got a thick skull so I’ll expect you’ll be back in a couple of days…”

“I’ll be back tomorrow if I can…” Pete started to say but was interrupted by Bloem before he could finish.

“No you rest up and enjoy the attentions of those pretty nurses,” Bloem advised, “when you come back I want you one-hundred-percent fit, okay?”

“Okay, bossman,” Pete agreed.

“Hey it’s Walt, or Walter if you prefer, now,” Bloem told his friend as he stood up and got ready to leave, “you’re not a rookie any more Pete.”

“Thanks, W-Walt,” it was only then that Pete realised his partner had been using his first name.

“That was a brave thing you did,” Walter reached out and laid his hand on Pete’s shoulder, “and if you ever do anything like that again I’ll shoot you myself…sheesh! What were you thinking? You coulda got yourself killed then where would I be?” 

Pete tried to answer but wasn’t given a chance.

“I’ll tell you where I’d be…” Walter laughed, “…I’d be trying to train a new rookie that’s where!”

“Okay, Walt, I promise I’ll never do anything brave again,” Pete promised the older cop.

“Okay then, as long as that’s settled,” Bloem nodded, “now lay back and let those girls fuss over you, then pick one of them and marry her, okay?”

“Sure, got it,” Pete agreed as he watched his partner walk slowly from the room.

0=0=0=0


	12. Chapter 12

12.

**The Giles’ Residence, Saturday morning.**

Lying on his back in the early morning light, Giles stared at the ceiling. Beside him Buffy still slept peacefully, totally unaware of the turmoil going on in his mind. He listened to her gentle breathing and felt the heat of her body as he waited for the alarm clock to tell him it was time to get up.

“Oh god,” he murmured quietly, “what have I done?”

The question was rhetorical so god didn’t bother answering; Giles. knew exactly what he’d done. But, there was only so much pleading, cajoling, weeping and down-right begging a man could take, eventually he’d given into Buffy’s demands. He’d told himself he’d just do it the once, surely that would satisfy her needs, but it didn’t and he hadn’t. They’d made love time and time again until he was exhausted and they’d both fallen asleep.

He knew he should feel ashamed of himself, but he didn’t. He knew that if he had one shred of decency left he’d drive out into the desert, dump his car and then start walking and keep walking until maybe some day someone found his bleached bones, but he knew he wouldn’t. Or he could take that rifle from his closet and blow his brains out, again he knew he wouldn’t.

What he did know was that feeling Buffy’s young body squirming underneath him had made him feel powerful. The touch of her smooth skin, the passion in her lips as he’d crushed them under his own had driven him to new heights of excitement the like of which he’d never know. Her moans and cries of pleasure as she reached her climax had made him feel more vital, more alive than he had ever felt before.

Turning onto his side he looked down at the sleeping woman beside him. He studied her peaceful, young face, admired the masses of blonde hair that framed her head and felt the desire in him start to rise. He wanted her again, without conscious thought his hand reached out to caress her breast as he lowered his lips onto hers. Shifting in her sleep, Buffy’s eyes flickered open and looked into his, he could see the desire in her eyes as she smiled dreamily as she rolled onto her back and opened her legs invitingly.

As he positioned himself above her, a little faraway part of Giles’ mind demanded to know what he thought he was doing. It told him that he should be disgusted with himself, it told him he was betraying the sacred trust between slayer and watcher that had lasted for centuries. He didn’t care, he didn’t want to listen, all he wanted to do was lose himself in the love and tenderness he’d found in the arms of his wife.

0=0=0=0

**The Morgue, Sunnydale General Hospital, Saturday Morning.**

Replacing the sheet over the body of the monster, Dr Kriegel stepped away from the autopsy table and removed his apron and gloves. Turning away from the table he paused for a moment and glanced back at the still form under the sheet. No, it hadn’t moved, he told himself, it was just the light playing tricks on his eyes. Although after what he’d just found out he’d believe almost anything was possible. Shaking his head, Dr Kriegel walked over to the coat hooks by the door; he took down his white doctor’s coat and slipped it on. Taking a deep breath he walked over to the door that led to the rest of the hospital and after only a momentary pause pushed it open.

Walking out into the brightly lit corridor he headed for the patient’s lounge where his visitors would be waiting for him. The walk didn’t take long and he was soon opening the door to the lounge; in front of him waiting anxiously were the Mayor, Deputy Mayor, Police Chief Reddy and Detective Stein. They all looked at him expectantly, the Mayor was the first to speak.

“Well, Doctor,” Mayor Wilkins took a step towards Kriegel, “that didn’t take long.”

“It didn’t take long,” Kriegel explained, “because I’ve not long done an autopsy on that…” words failed Kriegel for a moment, “…that thing.”

“What do you mean?” The Mayor demanded, “Already done an autopsy?”

“Let the doctor speak, Mr Mayor,” advised Chief Reddy, he turned his eyes to the doctor, “go on Dr Kriegel.”

“The body lying in the morgue,” Kriegel began, “was once that of Nancy Craig who was found dead early yesterday…I did the autopsy on her yesterday afternoon. The cause of death was exsanguination, hardly a drop of blood left in her body…”

“So you’re trying to tell me that his little, fifteen year old dead girl got up off her slab,” the Mayor continued with heavy sarcasm, “and killed nine people before being gunned down in the parking lot,” Wilkins laughed nervously, “that’s preposterous!”

“I agree,” Dr Kriegel shrugged, “by every standard I know, that young woman was dead when the officer blew her head off with his shotgun!”

“Is there any doubt or uncertainty in your mind that this is the same body, Doctor?” Deputy Mayor Finch asked quietly.

“None what-so-ever,” Kriegel confirmed the horrible truth, “what’s more I recovered seventeen 9mm and two .45 calibre rounds from that thing's body yet only the shotgun blast to the head seems to have had any effect…”

“Most things die if you blow their heads off, Doctor,” Detective Stein observed quietly.

“Well you must have got it wrong…” Mayor Wilkins continued to not believe the evidence he was being given.

“I wish I had,” Dr Kriegel replied calmly, “you’re welcome to have another Doctor do another autopsy, check my results. In fact I demand it!”

“Doctor,” Chief Reddy stepped towards the medic and made calming motions with his hands, “calm down; are you one-hundred percent sure that…” he gestured towards the morgue, “…that thing in there is Nancy Craig?”

“Not one-hundred percent…” the doctor began but was interrupted by the Mayor.

“Ha-ha! There you see,” the Mayor pointed at Kriegel, “he’s not sure he’s…”

“MR MAYOR!” Reddy rounded angrily on Wilkins, “Please, let the doctor finish what he’s saying or I’ll have to ask you to leave!”

“But you can’t I’m the Mayor I’ll…” Wilkins began to bluster.

“Yes he can,” Finch stated the unpalatable truth, “this is a police matter, we’re only here as a courtesy.”

For a moment it looked as if the Mayor was about to explode or at least have a coronary. After letting out a great whoosh of air the Mayor visibly calmed down.

“My apologies Dr Kriegel,” he said quietly, “please do continue.”

“As I was saying,” Kriegel continued, “I’m not one-hundred percent sure but once all the test results come back I will be.” Kriegel took a deep breath, “Nancy Craig, died and was autopsied, which included removing all her internal organs as well as removing her brain. Then she was sewn back together and at some point she came back to life, killed nine people was shot at least thirty times before having her head blown off by a shotgun blast.”

“That’s impossible,” Wilkins breathed quietly as the full horror of the situation hit home.

“I wish it was,” Dr Kriegel replied, “by all the laws of nature and science that poor girl was dead when the cop killed her.”

“What do we do now?” Wilkins asked his face having gone very pale.

“For one thing,” Stein sighed, “make sure all our patrolmen carry shotguns at all times.”

“A practical suggestion,” agreed Finch, “and if I might make another,” he looked at all the assembled faces turned towards him, “we put that…body under lock and key until we’ve finished studying it then we burn it as soon as possible.” Finch turned to look at Stein, “like shotgun blasts to the head, fire kills most things I believe.”

“Well said, Mr Finch,” Chief Reddy agreed.

“I’ll take a comprehensive set of tissue samples,” Kriegel said relieved to see that everyone was at least acting calmly, even the mayor, “I’ll have the hospital photographer take a full set of colour photographs of the body,” he paused for a moment before adding, “we can be ready to burn the body in less than six hours.”

“Good,” the Mayor nodded his head, “do that,” he turned to Chief Reddy, “cancel all police leave, I’ll authorise all the overtime you need until this matter is cleared up.” Wilkins turned to face the doctor, “The rest of the Craig family…?”

“Appear to be normal dead bodies,” Kriegel observed.

“Good,” Wilkins nodded his head before looking at Finch, “Allen lets get them into the ground as soon as possible…erm, make a fuss of it. We should be there I think, usual dignitaries and an honour guard would be a nice touch,” he paused in thought for a moment, “Invite a few trusted news people, otherwise keep the media away I don’t want this turned into a circus.”

“A statement, sir?” Finch pulled his note book from his pocket and started to jot things down.

“Yes write me something about how everyone is working twenty-four hours a day,” Wilkins explained, “that no one will rest until the vile…well you know the sort of thing. But the main message must be that we have everything under control and people aren’t to panic or take the law into their own hands.” Finally the mayor looked once more at the four other men in the room, “Gentlemen, I must apologies for my earlier outburst it won’t happen again, now I believe we all have work to do?”

“Mayor’s a little shook up,” Stein observed as he walked out of the lounge with Chief Reddy.

“Wouldn’t you be, Jim?” Reddy asked.

“Hey Chief,” Stein joked weakly, “I’m so shook up you’d think I was a milkshake.”

“Any more leads?” Reddy wanted to know.

“This guy in the duster is still our best bet,” Stein admitted.

“Okay,” Reddy paused bringing Stein to a halt by the hospital entrance, “go house to house if you have to…unless you get a better lead I want Mr Duster found, I don’t care what it takes…you weren’t joking about the shotguns were you?”

“No Chief,” Stein shook his head.

“Didn’t think so,” Chief Reddy scratched the back of his head before replacing his cap, “I’ll sign the order for the money to buy more and extra ammo as soon as be get back to headquarters.”

“Thanks Chief,” Stein said quietly.

0=0=0=0

**The old Sunnydale High School, Saturday afternoon.**

Looking up at the wooden fence that surrounded the blackened ruins of the old Sunnydale High, Mr Trick pulled the heavy revolver from under his jacket and checked for the fifth time that it was loaded. After leaving Willie’s Bar the other day Trick had tracked down Paddy Quinn, the man who’d claimed to have seen this mystery man in the ruins of the old school.

The big Irish American had become quite talkative after Trick had made it plain that he wasn’t going to take anything Quinn said to the police. Yes the guy was majorly scary and strong, Quinn claimed that he’d only just escaped with his life. Looking the petty crook up and down, Trick had decided that if he met this man in the school he’d shoot first and ask questions later. Anyone who could so thoroughly frighten the big Irishman wasn’t to be taken lightly. Of course Trick was confident he could deal with anything, he’d spent ten years in Special Forces stirring up trouble in the Philippines for the Pan Asians, there wasn’t a lot that could frighten him, not after what he’d seen the Japs do.

Walking along the fence, Trick found a weak spot and removed a couple of planks, stepping through the gap he walked over to the remains of the school. Pushing open what remained of a door, he pulled his revolver and stepped inside. This part of the school wasn’t too badly damaged, the mystery gas explosion had occurred on the other side of the school near the main hall, if anyone was using the place as a hide out they’d be using this end.

Walking along the corridor, Trick noticed that a door to his right was half open. He sidled over to it and read the sign on the door, ‘Boiler Room. No Unauthorised Access’. Trick smiled, if he was any judge the old maintenance guy for the school probably had a nice little snug hide away down there. Anyone using the school as a hide out would no doubt find it and take it over. Taking the flashlight from the pocket of his leather biker’s jacket, Trick cautiously went through the door and started down the steps into the dark.

0=0=0=0

Running for his life, Trick burst out of the semi-ruined school and into the bright sunlight of a late summer's afternoon. He'd found Mr Duster alright, just where he'd suspected him to be, down in the old boiler room. He'd crept up behind the man, gun in hand, as he appeared to be dozing in an old chair near the long cooled boilers. Mr Duster had woken up at the sound of Trick pulling back the hammer of his pistol. Trick had fired as the man had opened his eyes and snarled at him, he'd fired all six rounds into the man at close range there'd been no chance that he could have missed.

When Trick stopped firing he'd looked down at the body, Mr Duster looked dead, there were five bullet holes in his chest and one in his right shoulder, the guy was dead. It was as Trick was heading back to the stairs that led up to the main part of the school that he heard the noise behind him. Turning his head he saw Mr Duster stand up and brush himself down. 

It was then that Trick let out a strangled cry and had started to run. Something from his special forces training was telling to get out and get out fast. The last time he'd had that feeling was a few moments before the Japs had ambushed his team back on the Philippines and wiped out half of them. Trick wasn't going to hang around and get killed by something that appeared to shrug off bullets. No he'd come back with reinforcements and bigger guns... and maybe a flame thrower too.


	13. Chapter 13

13.

**The Giles’ Residence, late Saturday afternoon.**

Sitting at the dressing table in her and Giles’ bedroom, Buffy watched her reflection in the mirror as she brushed her hair. Her mother had phoned earlier asking them to come around to Revelo Drive that evening for a family get together. When Buffy had asked her what the occasion was Joyce had got all mysterious and wouldn’t say, she’d just laughed and said it was really important.

Buffy’s good mood at the thought of going to see her mother and father was spoilt by the way Rupert had been acting all day, he seemed angry about something. It was no good, she told herself, she needed to find out what was wrong before it ruined everything. Looking into her glass she saw Giles taking a jacket out of his wardrobe, now was as good a time as ever.

“Rupert,” Buffy said slowly, “have I done something wrong?”

“No,” Giles replied as he kept his back turned towards Buffy, “what makes you say that?”

“Well you’ve hardly said two words to me all day,” Buffy pointed out, “you hardly touched your breakfast or lunch,” That had hurt because Buffy had made one of Giles’ favourites for lunch, “If I’ve done something wrong please tell me so I won’t do it again…” Buffy found her eyes stinging as they filled with tears, “W-was it last night? Wasn’t I ‘good’, did I disappoint you in some way? Please tell me Rupert, I promise I’ll try harder,” Buffy sobbed quietly, “I want to be the best wife I can for you…I always thought you…” burying her face in her hands, Buffy started to cry.

“You’ve not done anything wrong,” Giles came over and knelt beside Buffy’s chair and gathered her into his arms, “it’s just…” he struggled for the right words. “…it’s just that this isn’t you…it isn’t me either.”

“It’s not?” Buffy asked tearfully.

“No,” Giles shook his head trying to think how best to put this, he didn’t want to hurt the young woman in his arms anymore than she was already, “this isn’t the Buffy I’ve know since that first day she came into the school library. The Buffy I know was a free spirit who at times drove me to distraction, but she was courageous and willing to sacrifice herself for her friends. The Buffy I knew wasn’t a mousy, little wife, she was…”

“You want me to be more like Willow?” Buffy brightened a little, “I can totally try and do that…but Willow’s clever and I’m…like, not so much.”

“No!” Giles said firmly, “I don’t want you to be like Willow I want you to be like the Buffy I knew I want that girl back!”

“You’re saying you don’t want to be married any more?” Buffy’s entire world started to crumble around her at the thought that ‘her’ Rupert didn’t want her anymore.

“Look Buffy,” Giles could see everything turning to crap even as he spoke, “we shouldn’t even be married, last night shouldn’t have happened…I’m your watcher and you’re my slayer we….”

Watching as Buffy sobbed uncontrollably, Giles felt like the rottenest cad imaginable, the poor girl obviously believed that they were supposed to be together forever as man and wife. He’d just destroyed all her hopes and dreams for the second time in her life. If it wasn’t for the certain knowledge that it’d only make things worse he’d go downstairs load that damn rifle and blow his brains out.

“Y-you w-want that other B-Buffy back,” Buffy sniffed as she grabbed a handful of tissues from the box on the table, “T-the one who fights t-terrible m-monsters and makes really b-bad personal choices…?” Buffy wiped at her eyes and blew her nose, “Y-you do know she totally had sex with one of these vampire things and he hadn’t even promised to marry her!?”

“You remember!?” Giles asked hopefully.

“Of course I remember,” Buffy replied, “it’s like having two sets of memories in my head, ‘Slutty, has sex with vampires, Buffy’ and me.”

“For all her faults,” Giles took hold of Buffy shoulders and smiled into her eyes that still sparkled with tears, “that’s the Buffy I knew and loved.”

“So, you don’t love me?” Buffy asked her voice getting smaller and further away.

“Of course I love you,” Giles reassured her.

“So, you still want to make love to me?” there was a quiet, more considered tone in Buffy’s voice now, “Coz that was real cool last night and you can totally do that again anytime you want!”

“Buffy!” Giles frowned and started to say something but was cut off by Buffy.

“It looks to me that you want both Buffys at the same time,” she explained as she wiped away her tears, “you want brave, fighty Buffy, even if she does have sex with vampires and you want cute, sexy Buffy who cooks your meals, cleans your apartment, shares your bed and has your babies…”

“Babies!?” Giles asked more than a little surprised.

“Yeah, babies,” Buffy nodded her head firmly, “but you can’t have both all the time…maybe you can have a little of each of them, but this is me,” she patted her chest just in case there was any doubt, “I’m real and I love you Rupert and I love being Mrs Giles…I won’t let you go without a fight.”

“Oh my god,” Giles suddenly realised what had happened.

The Buffy he knew, ‘the slayer’, had never really been whole heartedly ‘the slayer’, not like Faith who revelled in her powers. Of course Buffy did the job, but it wasn’t what she really was, it was a duty which she’d perform until it killed her but it wasn’t _her_. The woman in front of him was the _real_ Buffy. The Girl who wanted ‘normal’, whatever that might be, the girl who wanted a home, a husband and children. Slayer Buffy knew she could never have those things so when she found herself in this other Buffy’s mind (and with the knowledge that there was another slayer around) she’d let herself be taken over. That was why she’d adapted to this new world so quickly, this was as close to what she’d always wanted as she was ever likely to get.

“Rupert?” 

Giles blinked his eyes to find Buffy staring at him in confusion.

“Are you alright?” Buffy asked with real concern.

“Yes,” Giles sighed, “yes I think I am,” he resigned himself to being the best husband that he could be to this new Buffy, perhaps when the chips were down the old Buffy would come and visit. 

“Would you like to make love?” Buffy asked hopefully, “I mean its okay it won’t hurt the baby.”

“Baby?” Giles said with a frown.

“Erm, yes,” Buffy admitted, “I think I should have said something earlier…”

0=0=0=0

**The Old Sunnydale High School, Saturday mid-evening.**

“Are you sure this is the right place?” Detective Stein asked Mr Trick after the Swat team had searched the old boiler room.

“Year this is the right place,” Mr Trick pointed towards one of the silent boilers, “he was over by the boiler there. I gave him five in the chest but it didn’t stop him so I ran!”

“You were lucky to get out alive if this Mr Duster is anything like whatever Nancy Craig turned into,” Stein said as he moved cautiously towards the boiler his shotgun heavy in his hand; he looked into the space between the boiler and its neighbour, “looks like we’ve got something,” he called, “get the CSU guys down here now!”

What Stein had seen had made his heart ache, down behind the boiler was a pile of clothes, the sort of clothes that a girl like Nancy Craig would have worn. He suspected that the blood stains he’d spotted would match Nancy’s blood. He needed to catch and kill this monster before it killed anymore little girls.

0=0=0=0

**The Giles’ Residence, late Saturday night.**

“So,” Giles lay in bed watching Buffy brush her hair, “Spike and Dawn are going to get married.” He’d not really appreciated the full horror of the present situation until he saw Spike slip the ring onto Dawn’s finger, “Isn’t she a little young to be getting married?”

Alright, Giles told himself, in this reality Spike wasn’t a bloodsucking fiend, in fact he seemed to be a nice young man in his mid twenties. He owned his own business and was an officer in one of the local National Guard units. But that didn’t alter the fact that Spike was more than ten years older than Dawn (who Giles seemed to be able to accept as Buffy’s little sister even though she didn’t exist in his home reality) who was only fifteen.

“Well yes she is now,” Buffy agreed as she pulled her brush through her hair again, “but they’re going to wait until she’s had her sixteenth birthday before they tie the knot.”

After the little ‘upset’ earlier in the day, Giles and Buffy had gone to Revelo Drive to find more than just a family get together. Not only were there family members there, but also friends and colleagues from Hank Summers’ work. Principal Synder was even there with a very bored looking Cordelia Chase. On seeing the prospective Mrs Synder, Willow and Buffy had gone off into a corner and giggled uncontrollably for several minutes leaving Giles and Xander alone together.

Giles found Xander a different character to the Xander he knew, instead of the slightly irresponsible Xander Harris he’d know this Xander appeared to be older, more sure of himself and deeply in love with Willow. He’d noticed the obvious affection Willow had for Xander earlier in the week when he saw her concern for Xander’s hand injury. He was glad to see that Xander’s love for Willow was just as great as hers for him.

In many ways Giles found this world so much better than his home reality, everyone seemed more contented and well balanced. Of course he realised that this couldn’t be the full story, he’d not made an extensive study of the world it was increasingly likely he’d be spending the rest of his life in. But, just at the moment the ‘pro’s’ appeared to outweigh the ‘cons’, plus there was the baby. They’d not mentioned the baby to anyone as this was Dawn’s big night, telling everyone about the baby would be like Buffy stealing her little sister’s thunder, Buffy said she’d tell her mother the happy news later in the week.

After his initial and quite understandable shock at finding he was going to be a father, Giles found he quite liked the idea. He’d never imagined himself married let alone a father, also the idea of Buffy as a wife didn’t seem so strange to him now. He knew he must be being influenced by the Giles from this reality but…. But, it wasn’t really _his_ Buffy he was married to, he was married to (admittedly a ‘young’ woman) a Buffy who’d lived a completely different life than ’his’ Buffy, experienced different things and had different expectations.

“There done!” Buffy smiled as she put down her hairbrush.

Getting up she walked over to the light switch and switched off the light before undoing her robe and letting it fall to the floor, she stood naked in the moonlight coming in through the window for a moment until Giles noticed her.

“Buffy…” Giles was about to say something about inappropriate nudity but changed his mind when he found he liked what he saw.

“That’s me,” Buffy said happily as she walked to the bed, pulled back the covers and got in next to Giles, “I love you Rupert,” she told him as she started to unbutton his pyjama jacket, “and I’m really happy that we’re making a baby together…”

“Erm, yes the baby,” Giles said uncertainly as Buffy got to the cord that held his pyjama trousers in place, she pulled it loose with he teeth, “we…we really need to talk about him…or her, what school should he, or she, go to…OH MY GOD!”

Giles cried out as Buffy threw he leg across him and sat astride his abdomen.

“Buffy do you think this is wise…” Giles felt his body start to react to the attractive young woman who was at present sitting on him, “…after all the baby…”

“I told you,” Buffy said as she wriggled a little further down Giles’ body, “sex won’t hurt the baby and we totally need to, like, do the ‘make-up’ sex thing.”

“We do?” Giles asked as his glasses started to mist up.

“Yep,” Buffy nodded as she reached down between her legs and started to guide Giles into her, “it’s in all the books…”

“Oh well if it’s in all the books,” Giles sighed with pleasure, “we better do as they say…”

0=0=0=0

**Buffys’ Brain.**

“Ewww!” cried Buffy, “Are you finished now?”

“What do you mean, ‘Ewww’?” Buffy asked herself.

“Like, when I said I wanted ‘normal’,” Buffy explained, “I didn’t think I’d end up having sex with my watcher.”

“He’s my husband,” Buffy said sharply.

“He’s my watcher,” Buffy repeated with equal force; it was obvious that both Buffys felt protective towards Giles.

The two young women stared at each other across a table in a place that one of them knew as the ‘Espresso Pump’ and the other as ‘Mr Lyons Tea Shop’, where her little sister worked as a waitress; Buffy looked around hoping to catch a glimpse of her sister, but then she remembered that she wasn’t really there and Dawn was probably with Spike.

“We need to talk,” the Buffys chorused, for a moment the two young women looked at each other in silence neither of them knowing where to start.

“We’re not going to disturb Rupert are we?” Buffy asked in concern.

“No,” Buffy shook her head, “he’s asleep,” she frowned at herself for a moment, “in fact we’re all asleep this is our subconscious’ talking to each other.”

“It is?” Buffy gave herself a puzzled frown, “You’re totally cleverer than I am.”

“No I’m not,” despite herself Buffy found she rather liked her other self, “we just know different things…like I’m lost in the kitchen…”

“…and I wouldn’t know what to do if I met one of those vampire things,” Buffy explained sadly.

“We need to find a way of sharing this body,” Buffy announced.

“Agreed,” Buffy nodded her head, “I’m sure if we work together we’ll both be happy.”

The negotiations went on for some time but eventually the two Buffy’s came to an understanding.

“So, we’ve gotta a deal?” Buffy said glad that things had gone relatively smoothly, there’d been some sticking points but generally the two Buffy’s were united in one thing, they both loved Giles or Rupert (depending on who was talking) and they both wanted to see him happy.

“I do all the wife-age, and the sex…” Buffy announced happily.

“…and I do all the fighty stuff and anything that might involve danger,” Buffy frowned for a second thinking she’d got the worst of the deal.

“Don’t worry,” Buffy told Buffy when she saw the look on her face, “if you ever decide you wanna have sex with Rupert or anything else…like cook Thanksgiving dinner, I’m sure that we can totally work something out.”

“Cool,” Buffy agreed with herself, “erm, Buffy…?”

“Yeah,” Buffy sat back in her seat and pulled her robe more tightly around her.

“About the sex…” Buffy continued uncertainly.

“What about it?” Buffy asked suspiciously.

“Giles is sorta…kinda…” Buffy took a deep breath before saying, “…big? Doesn’t it hurt?” Of course it didn’t hurt, Buffy told herself, she’d been there while Giles and Buffy had been having sex.

“Big?” Buffy looked at Buffy in confusion, “Not so you’d notice,” she shrugged, “he’s about normal I suppose.” Buffy was quite aware of what was normal for a man’s penis, after all she’d always done well in Sex Education class. “Hey,” Buffy carried on nonchalantly, “from what Dawn tells me Spike’s about the same size.”

“Oh,” Buffy frowned, “I’ll bow to your superior knowledge, after all I’ve only ever slept with Angel and then he totally turned evil and tried to kill everyone…”

“I can see how that would give you a total downer on sex,” Buffy commiserated with herself.

“But…” Buffy hesitated, “…he, like didn’t seem as…well, be as big as Giles is….”

“Oh,” Buffy said knowingly.

“And he always seemed to finish quickly,” Buffy added disappointedly.

“Oh,” Buffy repeated; poor Buffy, Buffy felt sorry for herself; it seemed that the only man Buffy had had sex with had ‘problems’ other than being an undead fiend, “Look,” Buffy reached across the table and took hold of Buffy’s hand, “if you ever want to join me while I’m making love to Rupert…?”

“NO!” Buffy shivered, not exactly with disgust but something close to it, “the whole idea of having…no, making love to Giles still gives me the wig.”

“Well, the offers still open if you ever want to join in,” Buffy smiled.

“Thanks, but no thanks,” Buffy smiled back at herself, “now I think we should get to sleep.”

“Yeah,” agreed Buffy with a nod, “we don’t want to look all bleary eyed for Rupert in the morning.

“No we certainly don’t,” Buffy agreed with more feeling than she would normally feel.

It was then that a nasty little thought entered Buffy’s mind; hadn’t Dawn said something about her attacker having a laughably small penis?

0=0=0=0


	14. Chapter 14

14.

**Sunnydale, late Saturday night.**

Standing in the shadow of the door way, Angelus watched as the little group of giggling teenage girls made their way along the sidewalk opposite. He loved this world; when he’d first woken up confused and disorientated he’d not be able to understand what had happened. He remembered going to sleep as that pathetic excuse for a vampire, Angel and then waking up to find that Angelus was back. At first he’d thought that he was the victim of some prank or spell. But very soon as he started to explore this new yet strangely familiar world he began not to care.

He very quickly discovered that he was the only vampire or demon around, the hellmouth didn’t exist and there was no magic…none! As he soon discovered this meant that he could simply walk into peoples houses without bothering to wait for an invitation; that’s how he had slaughtered that family. He smiled at the remembrance of it; the screaming, the begging for mercy…the blood. Unfortunately he’d not had the time to really enjoy himself, he’d played with a couple of the little girls before killing them but he’d not had the opportunity to get really inventive.

One of the reasons for his rush was that he’d discovered that the police here reacted quicker and their ignorance of the things that stalked the night made them braver, given time he’d show them the error of their ways. In fact people in general were more wiling to put themselves in danger for their fellow citizens, as had happened when he’d gone after the slayers brat sister.

This was strange, he’d seen the girl in the tea shop earlier in the evening and had already decided to make a meal of her, but only after he’d had a little fun with her first. As he’d watched her through the window of the tea shop he’d realised who she was; but that didn’t make any sense, the slayer didn’t have a sister but there she was large as life and so full of rich, hot, blood the mere thought made his teeth itch. But it hadn’t worked out, perhaps he’d been off his game but the girl fought back and bit him… _bit him_!? Hearing the sound of approaching feet he’d sped off into the night with the girl’s screams still ringing in his ears.

Ducking back into the doorway to avoid the lights of a police cruiser as it passed slowly down the street, Angelus lost sight of his prey for a moment. Once the police car was out of view he quickly reacquired them. Stepping out onto the sidewalk he thrust his hands into his pockets and crossed the road. The girls were no more than fifty yards in front of him, he could smell the sex on them he could almost feel the blood racing around their bodies, this time…

He’d taken one of the girls from the house back to his lair in the old High School there he’d tortured her and played with her much as a cat did with a mouse. Then he’d turned her, but, whatever made this world different from the world he was used to also prevented the demonic essence from entering the body of the newly sired. In stead of a long term sexual partner who had never known a man before him he now faced a ravening monster that had attacked him. He fought it off and rendered it insensible before putting it where the humans could find it, let them deal with it.

Following the girls he waited for the little group to split up. Yes he could take them all and feed from them, but he wanted more than that he wanted to spend some quality time with one of the girls, he wanted to hear her cry and scream and beg for her life. He’d make her perform the most perverted and degrading acts promising that if she did what he told her she’d live, of course he wouldn’t keep that promise.

Normally he preferred to hunt virgins; a virgin who’d never seen a man naked wouldn’t notice his ‘short coming’. However, in this world virgins seemed to be very thin on the ground (unless he went after the very young and they tended to die too quickly for his taste), the four girls he was following now couldn’t be much older than fourteen or so yet none of them were virgins (this brought back memories of tavern wenches and the whores from his youth). He shrugged under his coat, ‘whatever’ as Buffy might say, the girl he took tonight wouldn’t notice that he didn’t ‘measure up’ she’d be too busy screaming.

Closing the distance slightly with the girls; they appeared to be splitting up with one girl telling her friends good night, Angelus remembered bedding that stupid little bitch, Buffy Summers. She’d moaned when he’d taken her, she’d been a virgin and hadn’t know what to expect and she’d seemed quite satisfied when he’d finished with her, of course she’d unwittingly brought Angelus back and…he’d never quite gone away again.

Yes, Angelus smiled as he watched the girl cross the road, wave to her friends then head down a side street. Shaking his head he followed the girl into the dimly lit street, people here had no fear of the night, he’d soon teach them to fear the dark, to fear him.

“Excuse me Miss,” Angelus called as he ran to catch up with the girl.

“Yes…” the girl stopped and turned towards him, “…can I help you?”

“Yeah,” Angelus smiled at the girl disarmingly, “I’m new to town and I’ve got a little turned around can you tell me where the Sunnydale Lodge Motel is?”

“Oh wow!” the girl laughed as she came to stand near him, “You really are lost, that’s on the other side of town…”

As the girl stood next to him giving him directions, the smell of her almost overwhelmed him, the sound of her heart beating so close almost made him tear out her throat there and then, but he held himself back. He studied her closely, her smooth, beautiful, unblemished face, the swell of her young, firm, round breasts; although he could smell the man on her, she still projected an air of innocence. That would soon change.

“…okay?” the girl had come to the end of her directions, “I’d show you myself but I’ve got to get home, my mom’s waiting up for me…”

“Yeah sure, thanks,” Angelus waited until the girl had turned away from him to carry on her journey home before he pounced.

He took a moment to enjoy the girls fear as she wriggled in his grasp before he rendered her unconscious. Once he got her home he’d have plenty of time to enjoy her screams and fear.

0=0=0=0

**The Rosenberg Residence, Sunday Morning.**

Knocking on the door, Xander stepped back and waited for someone to answer, while he waited he glanced back at his truck. It was his work truck so he was able to get petrol for it, but his main worry was, had he cleaned it up enough, he wanted today to be special and he didn’t want Willow worrying about getting her clothes dirty.

“Hi Xander.”

The sound of a woman’s voice dragged him back to the here and now.

“Oh, hi Mrs Rosenberg,” Xander smiled at Willow’s mom.

“I keep telling you,” Sheila Rosenberg smiled welcomingly, “you can call me Sheila or ‘Mom’ which ever…I expect you’ve come for Willow,” Sheila turned to call for her eldest daughter.

“I’m here!” Willow appeared, a little out of breath, in the doorway next to her mother.

Just for a moment, Xander Harris drank in the hotness that was Willow Rosenberg; she was wearing a really tight t-shirt that he could see her nipples through, a short skirt (one of those pleated tartan ones he liked so much) and sneakers, in her hand she carried a picnic basket. His cover story for the day was that they were going up into the hills for a picnic and as he hadn’t got a mom to do stuff like picnic baskets Willow had volunteered to do the necessary.

“Xander close your mouth,” Willow giggled, “you’ve seen me in this outfit before.”

“Yeah,” Xander nodded his head desperately trying to think of something gallant to say (for a moment he couldn’t help but think, ‘I bet Buffy’s husband always knows what to say’) eventually he came up with, “but I never realised how beautiful you are in it…”

“Good try,” Willow laughed.

“Eight out of ten for effort,” Sheila added with a smile.

“Okay,” Xander shrugged resignedly, “so I’m not so good with the romantic phrase, but, romantic phrases won’t help you when your pipes have burst!”

“He’s right,” Sheila agreed, “just look at your father…Willow you better snap this one up before he gets away.”

“Don’t worry Mom,” Willow smiled as she walked out the door to join Xander on the path, “I’ve got my claws into him, see?” She held up her hand with the engagement ring on her third finger.

“Well you enjoy yourselves,” Sheila waved as the young couple headed towards Xander’s truck, “don’t say out _too_ late…I’m sure Willow’s bed is much more comfy than a hill side!”

“MOM!” Willow screamed in embarrassment.

0=0=0=0

Taking a moment to appreciate the sight of Willow climbing into his truck in a short skirt, Xander dragged his mind back from the happy place it had gone to.

“Hey,” he said as he put the keys into the ignition, “do you mind if I stop off at work I’ve got to check on something?”

“Okay,” Willow wriggled about getting comfortable, “as long as it doesn’t take long.”

The drive to the housing estate that Harris Homes was constructing took less than five minutes, parking outside a completed house Xander turned to Willow.

“Hey, Will,” he grinned like a small boy at a ball game, “why don’t you come in and take a look around?”

“Well,” Willow said uncertainly, “just for a minute or two, y’know I’m still waiting for that surprise you promised me.”

“Don’t worry,” Xander opened his door, “I haven’t forgotten.”

Leading Willow up to the front door, Xander explained how that apart from the landscaping most of the houses were complete and in the next month or so after all the State mandated inspections were complete they’d be put on the market.

“Once every where’s finished this is going to be a real nice place to live,” Xander unlocked the front door and followed Willow into the house.

“Wow,” Willow gasped as she stood in the hall, “its way big and totally out of our price bracket.”

“Yep,” Xander came to stand next to Willow, “master bedroom, three smaller bedrooms, two bathrooms, downstairs there’s a kitchen, dinning room, family room and a den, there’s even a utility room in the basement.” Xander paused to watch the look on Willow’s face as she looked around.

“Ow,” Willow sighed in disappointment as she saw some furniture had already been laid out in the family room, “looks like someone already bought the place,” this was her dream home, but she was resigned to having to wait for years before they could afford something this big.

“Yep,” Xander nodded as he explained, “young couple, just starting out, nice people I think you know them…” he held the house keys up in front of Willow’s eyes, “…welcome to your new home Mrs Harris!”

“XANDER!!!” Willow screamed as she grabbed hold of her fiancé and kissed him like he’d never been kissed before, after a minute or three she came up for air, “HOW? WHEN? Oh, Xander….”

It was several more minutes before Xander could speak again.

“To answer your questions,” Xander explained as he showed a speechless Willow around her new home, “How; well I sorta built it myself with help from some of the guys on the crew and dad only charged me cost for materials, ‘when’; almost any time I had free, in the evenings at weekends…”

“When you said you had all those rush jobs on,” Willow replied as they walked up stairs to look at the bedrooms, “you were doing this…and there was me thinking you had another girlfriend…I’m ashamed that I doubted you Xan…”

“And here’s the master bedroom,” Xander opened the door with a flourish.

“With a bed already installed,” Willow’s lascivious grin turned into a frown, “but no curtains…”

“Look,” Xander shrugged, “we’re the only people here, no one will see in.”

“Okay,” Willow agreed; after a moments pause she started to take off her t-shirt, “you’ve convinced me,” her skirt joined her t-shirt on the floor as she started to kick off her sneakers, “lets try this bed out now!”

Panties tossed carelessly to one side, Willow jumped on the bed and bounced for a moment or two.

“Ooooh, comfy,” she giggled, “no more squeaking springs and waking my mom and dad up!” she laughed, “Come on Xan or I’ll start without you!”

Xander was still standing fully clothed in the door way a little stunned.

“Y-yeah, o-okay,” he stammered; while he’d expected that Willow and himself would end up in bed together he’d not realised that Willow would be quite this eager, he’d thought she’d at least wait until after they’d had their picnic. “I’ll go get some condoms…they’re in the basket, right?”

“Forget the condoms,” Willow got up on her hands and knees and crawled across the bed towards Xander, “let’s make babies!!!”

0=0=0=0

**Sunnydale, Monday morning.**

Standing over the body of fourteen year old Alice McLoughlin, Detective Stein didn’t need the ME to tell him that she’d been a victim of what was becoming known as the ‘Monster of Sunnydale’. He gestured to a uniform cop to cover up the poor girl’s body and wait with it until the coroner’s people took her away.

“Went missing on Saturday night,” Officer Bloem read from his note book, “called in by her mother when she didn’t get home in time for her curfew.”

“Which was?” Stein studied the alley way where the body had been found, he already knew they wouldn’t find any clues, this sick bastard was careful.

“Eleven-thirty,” Bloem checked his note book again, “she was out with some of her girlfriends and there boyfriends.”

“Have they all been interviewed,” Stein asked already suspecting he knew the answer, SPD were an efficient force.

“Yes and they can all account for their whereabouts over the last twenty-four hours,” Bloem informed him.

“Yeah well I thought I’d ask,” Stein turned away from the sheet covered body.

“Friends say they all left the Bronze at about ten-forty-five,” Bloem wasn’t bothering to read from his notebook now, he knew the details by heart, “the boyfriends headed on back to UCS and the girls headed for home. They last saw Alice when she turned off the main road to head for home.”

“And that’s the last anyone saw of her,” Stein glanced back at the shape under the sheet, “Then the killer had a good twenty-four hours to do _that_ to her.”

“Yeah looks like,” Bloem agreed as he slipped his notebook back into his shirt pocket; in twenty-five years on the force he’d never seen anything like these murders, whoever was doing them had to be insane or something.

“Walter,” Stein said quietly as he pulled the older officer out of earshot of the CSU’s still fussing around the body, “I don’t think I can do this anymore…”

“Hey, detective…Jim,” Bloem placed his hand on the younger man’s shoulder, “we’ll get him…”

“Yeah, but how many more innocent people have to die before we do?” Stein shook his head in disgust at himself; he’d moved to Sunnydale because it was a nice quiet town who were offering him a good package to head up their detective department. He thought he’d left stuff like this back in LA.

“And when we do it’ll be because of you, Jim,” Bloem insisted, “it’ll be you who slaps the cuffs on this sicko and I’ll stand beside you and cheer as we watch the bastard fry!”

“Your faith in me is…” Stein smiled weakly, “…well, its good of you Walter but I think it’s misplaced.”

“Look,” Bloem guided Stein towards the detective’s car, “go home, have a shower, make love to your wife then sleep for twelve hours,” he smiled encouragingly, “then come back to work and re-examine all the evidence, okay?”

“You think that’ll work?” Stein didn’t look or sound convinced.

“It can’t hurt,” Bloem replied with a shrug.

“No,” Stein shook his head as he headed for his car, “I don’t suppose it will.”

0=0=0=0


	15. Chapter 15

15.

**The Giles’ Residence, breakfast time.**

“Morning Giles!” Buffy came in from the kitchen and put Giles’ breakfast on the table in front of him before sitting down and starting to eat her own.

“Oh, thank-you Buffy,” Giles picked up his knife and fork, he paused before starting to eat and looked at the young woman sitting across the table from him, “Buffy?” he said as his eyebrows slowly drew together.

“That’s me,” Buffy smiled before sipping her tea, “well actually that’s two of me.”

“Buffy you’re back!” Giles cried excitedly.

“Hey, hey calm down and eat your breakfast,” Buffy grinned impishly, “and think yourself lucky I didn’t cook it.”

“W-what?” Giles asked confused.

“You were right Giles,” Buffy admitted, “there’s two of me in here, there’s Slayer-Buffy and wife and soon to be Mom-Buffy…it totally gives a whole new meaning to talking to yourself!”

“But you’re ‘Slayer-Buffy’, right?” Giles was trying to get things straight in his head; he’d almost given up hope of ever talking to, or seeing his slayer again.

“Right look,” Buffy put down her tea mug, placed her elbows on the table and rested her chin on her hands, “I’ll try and explain…on Saturday night when you and other-Buffy had finished doing all the squishy stuff, and by the way Giles that’s totally gross!”

“You were watching!?” Giles cried out in shock.

“Hard not to, I’m totally in her brain...,” Buffy giggled before adding, “...big boy.”

“So, let me get this right,” Giles picked up his own tea cup and sipped from its contents, “there’s two distinct Buffy’s in one body and you’re the dominate one?”

Giles wasn’t one-hundred percent sure what to think about that, while he was glad to have his old slayer back; the other Buffy was a pleasant young woman and he’d be sorry to see her go…plus the regular sex had been nice too.

“Not so much,” Buffy pushed her hair back from where it had fallen across her face, “like I was saying, after you’d done the…erm…stuff, Buffy and I had a little talk.” Buffy got up and took Giles’ empty plate back into the kitchen, “more tea?”

“No thank-you, I’m fine,” Giles replied, he was beginning to see what was going on here, but he decided to let Buffy talk, it would make a change for someone else to be doing all the explaining.

“We had a little talk and we came to an agreement,” Buffy came back to the table and sat down, “we agreed to share this body, like taking it in turns to be in charge.” Buffy smiled across the table at her watcher, “I’ll do all the slayer-like stuff, you know staking vamps hitting things really hard and she’ll do all the girly stuff.” Buffy paused for a breath, “Y’know, cooking, cleaning…sex.”

“Oh thank the lord for that,” Giles said before he could stop himself, “I-I mean….”

“I know exactly what you meant,” Buffy gave her watcher a knowing look, “and so you know who you’re talking to,” Buffy turned her head away for a moment before continuing, “or doing anything else to, other-Buffy will always call you ‘Rupert’ and I’ll always call you ‘Giles’.”

“Erm,” Giles removed his glasses and gave them a quick polish, “when you’re not ‘in charge’ as it were,” Giles gestured vaguely with his spectacles, “just how aware are you of what the other Buffy is doing?”

“As aware as I want to be,” Buffy took pity on her watcher when she saw the worried look on his face, “don’t worry I won’t watch while you and her are doing the…erm…well you know…?”

“Oh, well, that’s a relief,” Giles said quietly.

“I wouldn’t spoil things for her,” Buffy replied wistfully, “y’know Giles its frightening just how much she loves you…I mean we both ‘love’ you but she _really_ loves you in ever meanings of the word, you’re her ‘everything’.”

“Oh my,” Giles gasped at the responsibility that had just been placed on his shoulders, he’d never had anyone rely on him like that before.

“So, you better watch out,” Buffy said in all seriousness, “I’ll know if you’re mean to her or make her cry.”

“Buffy!” Giles spluttered, “I mean Buffys…I’d never do anything like that to…”

“Not intentionally you wouldn’t,” Buffy agreed, “but Giles you do sometimes speak without thinking and manage to say just the wrong thing and…”

“And?” Giles replaced his glasses and watched Buffy’s face swim back into focus.

“Look she’d never say this herself, but…” Buffy wasn’t sure how to put what she wanted to say but she’d try for her other self’s sake, “…but, she wishes you’d totally take more of a lead in…y’know….”

“I’m not sure I do,” Giles replied slightly mystified.

“Sex!” Buffy almost screamed the word, “You totally had to make me say it didn’t you? You’re always waiting to be asked, Giles,” Slayer-Buffy explained as she become more and more uncomfortable; she was giving ‘sex advice’ to her watcher. “She’d like it if you’d sometimes just…” Buffy pulled a face that told of her inner turmoil, “…you know…just…‘took’ her!” There she’d said it and she could hear the other Buffy who liked having sex with Giles thanking her in her head, “Don’t worry you won’t hurt her and she’ll let you know if she can’t or doesn’t want to…gee the idea of her totally not wanting to…” Buffy paused and shook her head, “…she’d just like you to be more forceful,” again Buffy pulled a face, “sometimes.”

“Oh,” Giles didn’t know what to say or indeed where to look.

“Look,” Buffy stood up and started to clear away the breakfast things, “we’ll talk about this some more later, in the mean time,” she glanced at the clock on the mantel piece, “you better get to work or Synder will growl at you.”

“Oh Synder’s not that bad,” Giles said as he stood up, he was glad to have something else to talk about, “you know he’s…”

“Hi Rupert!” suddenly other Buffy was back, she rushed around the table and threw her arms around Giles’ neck; standing on tip toe she kissed him on the lips, “Don’t worry I heard everything!”

“You did?” Giles swallowed the big lump in his throat.

“Yeah,” Buffy nodded, “now your lunch is in your brief case,” Buffy giggled at the look on Giles’ face, “don’t worry I made it, now…”

Buffy let go of Giles for a moment and undid the belt that held her robe together and let it fall open, she was naked underneath, she stepped back towards Giles and pressed her young, lithe body against his.

“Let’s do it now,” Buffy said huskily, “right here on the breakfast table.”

“I-I…I’ll be late for w-work,” Giles stuttered as he looked down into those big green eyes and watched them dull a little as Buffy’s lips turned down in sadness.

Remembering what the Slayer-Buffy had said he placed his hands on her waist and lifted her up onto the table, “To hell with Synder…!”

Fifteen minutes later Buffy stood in the doorway, respectably dressed in her robe again, and waved goodbye to her husband.

*You’re such a slut!* Buffy told her from inside her head.

“You’re only jealous,” Buffy giggled as she closed the door before heading for the bathroom.

*Maybe I am,* Slayer-Buffy admitted.

0=0=0=0

**Sunnydale PD Headquarters, later that day.**

“Another murder, Jim,” Chief Reddy said as the detective walked into his office, “any new leads?”

“Nothing really helpful, Chief,” Stein admitted; since the murder of Alice McLoughlin the previous night, Jim Stein had taken Officer Bloem’s advice and gone home and had a good nights sleep; he was feeling much more able to deal with the terror that stalked Sunnydale now. “CSU found some bloody prints that match those found at the Craig murder site so its definitely the same perp.”

“Well that’s something,” Reddy admitted, “at least there aren’t two of the bastards, anything else?”

“No one saw or heard anything,” Stein pointed out, “so I’m thinking he’s using an abandoned property as a base. I’m having everywhere searched but its taking time.”

“What do you need Jim,” Reddy said quickly, “the Mayor said you could have anything you wanted to crack this one.”

“I need more people, Chief,” Stein explained, “we simply don’t have enough feet on the ground.”

“Hmmm,” Reddy thought about the problem for a moment, “The Mayor won’t want to ask the Governor to call out the Guard but…” Reddy paused for a moment, “…how about some Minutemen?”

The Minutemen were Sunnydale’s first and last line of defence against any possible Pan Asian attack; they were also under the Mayor’s direct control so he didn’t have to ask anyone if he wanted to call them out.

“A hundred or so extra men would be helpful,” Stein agreed.

“I’ll talk to the Mayor when I see him later this morning,” Reddy nodded his head as he noted it on a piece of notepaper, “you’ll have your extra one-hundred men first thing tomorrow morning.”

“There is another idea I’ve thought about, but I’m reluctant to suggest it,” Stein spoke softly as if he was ashamed of what he was about to say.

“Go on Jim,” Reddy encouraged, “just now I’ll listen to anything however wacky it might sound.”

“Well, Chief,” Stein took a deep breath, “I’ve been thinking of putting a decoy or decoys out on the street in the hopes that the killer will attack them and we can be waiting to take him down.”

“You mean dress some of the shorter, younger officers up as women?” Reddy asked, “Not a bad idea…”

“No Chief,” Stein interrupted, “I don’t think that’ll work…”

“You mean…?” Reddy looked at Jim Stein in shock.

“Yes it’d have to be real women,” Stein explained.

“But Jim…” Reddy gasped, “…are you willing to put a woman in danger to catch this man?”

“Yes, Sir I am,” Stein said formally, “it may be the only way.”

“Would you let your wife or one of your daughters be bait?” Reddy asked slowly.

“Yes Chief, I would,” Stein nodded, “if she volunteered to do it.”

“Well,” Reddy eyed his chief detective for a moment or two; the man certainly looked as horrified at the very idea of putting someone’s wife or daughter in danger like this as he felt; he obviously wasn’t suggesting this lightly. “Okay,” Reddy said with a heavy heart, “I’ll suggest it to the Mayor but its really down to me to decide…start looking for volunteers but we’ll only use them as a last resort, understand?”

“Yes Chief,” Stein nodded; if this didn’t work, or, if it did and the woman or women got hurt that would be the end of his career; it would also probably be the end of a brave woman’s life.

0=0=0=0

**Revelo Drive, Dawn’s room, early Monday evening.**

Up in her bedroom, Dawn smiled at her reflection and liked what she saw; she was wearing her sexist underwear (in fact she’d agonised over whether to wear the underwear at all; in the end she’s decided to keep it on, she didn’t want to appear too desperate) her shortest skirt, her most see-through of blouses and her highest heels. Her make up was ‘just so’, her Mom was right, less was more. As it was she was more than mortal man could resist (or deserved), at least Spike couldn’t resist her as the engagement ring on her finger proved.

Although, Spike had asked her to marry him in front of witnesses on Saturday night, they’d decided to wait until Monday before having ‘proper’ sex. Again Dawn hadn’t wanted to appear too needy. Once Spike had put that ring on her finger in front of all those people they could have ‘proper’ sex before they got married. If Spike decided to back out of the engagement, Dawn’s father could sue him for ‘breach of promise’ which would probably mean Spike would lose his business as compensation. But Spike wouldn’t do anything as mean as trying to back out of their engagement, Spike was good and he loved Dawn just as much as she loved him. So, they’d decided to wait, at least a couple of days.

Turning away from the mirror, Dawn picked up her little backpack (the same one she’d taken on ‘sleepovers’ to her friend’s houses) going over to her wardrobe she found a work skirt and blouse and put them in the pack, she’d be going straight from Spike’s apartment to work on Tuesday morning, she wouldn’t be home again until Tuesday afternoon. Collecting her toothbrush, hairbrush, soap and a towel she put them all in her bag. For a moment she wondered about packing a pair of lower shoes, with a shrug she decided she could work one day in heels. Clipping the fasteners on her bag closed, Dawn paused to look around her room, the same room that had once been Buffy’s. In about five months time it wouldn’t be her room any more and she’d be Mrs Pratt. Just for a moment Dawn wondered if she was making the right decision, wasn’t she too young for the responsibilities of marriage and babies?

“Get real,” she told herself all doubts gone, “like I’m so totally ready!”

With a smile on her lips she skipped out of the room, switched off the light and closed the door behind her. The act of closing the door seemed to represent all the things that would change in her life in the next few months. So there’d be problems and hiccups along the way, but she had her Mom and Buffy to tell her what to do; the Summers’ women seemed pretty good at this marriage thing and she didn’t see how she would be any different.

0=0=0=0

“Mom?” Dawn called quietly; she didn’t want to disturb her father who was watching TV in the family room; the knowledge that his ‘little girl’ was going off to spend the night with her fiancé was bad enough without him having to see the reality.

“I’m in the kitchen,” Joyce called back.

Walking into the kitchen, Dawn paused to watch her mother tidying up, well, she was pretending to tidy up what she was actually doing was waiting for was her daughter to come downstairs. Turning to face Dawn, Joyce smiled tearfully.

“My little girl’s all grown up now,” she stepped forward and gave her daughter a hug, “you do look nice, I hope Spike notices and realises just how lucky he is.”

“If he doesn’t,” Dawn grinned, “I’m totally keeping my legs tightly crossed tonight!”

Both women laughed at Dawn’s little joke.

“So, you’ll be back after work on Tuesday?” Joyce asked as she headed over to a drawer and took something out, before hiding it behind her back.

“Yeah that’s right,” Dawn tried to see what her mother was hiding.

“Its just a little present,” Joyce informed her daughter, she picked up Dawn’s pack and slipped the tube of lubrication jelly into it without Dawn seeing what it was. “I’ll put it in your bag and you can look at it later.”

“Okay,” Dawn replied uncertainly telling herself it was probably something silly and Momsie, “hey!” she heard a motor vehicle pull up outside the house and glanced at the kitchen clock, “That’ll be Spike,” she hurried over and kissed her mother on the check, “Bye mom!”

“Have fun dear,” Joyce called as her daughter clattered out through the kitchen door and down the hall.

“Bye Dad!” Dawn called just before the front door opened and closed and Dawn was gone.

Moments later Hank Summers walked slowly into the kitchen and over to his wife, he put his arm around her shoulder.

“Y’know,” he said softly, “she’s only been gone a second or two but it already seems very quiet in here.”

“Won’t last,” Joyce told her husband as she rubbed her belly, “this one will soon be making enough noise so we won’t notice that Dawn’s gone and I’m sure it’ll be a boy this time.”

“I don’t care what it is,” Hank reassured her, “actually I’ve grown used to girls I don’t know if I could deal with a boy after two daughters.”

“So now we’re alone,” Joyce murmured softly, “shall we go upstairs and have a little fun of our own?”

“If you feel up to it,” Hank smiled, “and there’s noting but war news on the TV so we might as well….”

“Hank Summers!” Joyce took a half heated swipe at her husband’s head which he easily dodged, “Last of the romantics…” she laughed, “…nothing on TV indeed!”

0=0=0=0


	16. Chapter 16

16.

**Monday Night, Spike’s Apartment.**

“Wow,” Dawn sighed softly as she snuggled up to Spike’s sleeping form; that, she told herself, had been worth waiting eight months for, she held that thought for a moment before correcting herself; that had been worth waiting fifteen and a half years for!

The night had started when Spike had picked Dawn up from her home at seven-thirty, he’d even hired a car; she’d half expected him to turn up on his motorbike but luckily for him he hadn’t. Next they’d driven back to his store and apartment, on arrival Spike had got out the car and held the door open for her as she’d got out onto the sidewalk. As Dawn had climbed out of the car she could feel Spikes eyes on her, as a reward she’d opened her legs a little further than was really necessary and let him have a glimpse of the sexy, almost-see-through thong she was wearing.

Standing outside ‘Motor-Spikes’, Spike had told her to close her eyes as he unlocked the door. Giggling girlishly as she complied, Dawn found herself being guided into the showroom, she could smell oil and metal polish (strangely two smells that always got her aroused) as she was led across the room. Coming to a halt Spike told her to keep her eyes tightly closed until he’d finished doing something. Forcing herself to keep her eyes shut and not peeking, Dawn listened to the odd clicking noise and Spike’s footsteps as he moved around the showroom. Feeling him come to stand behind him, she jumped a little when he rested his hands on her shoulders and told her she could open her eyes.

Squealing with delight Dawn opened her eyes to see the candle light reflected off the polished chrome of the motorbikes surrounding the dinner table set for two. It was like being in a motorbike wonderland, Spike led her over to the table where he pulled out her chair as she sat down, Dawn realised that this must have taken Spike hours to arrange. Turning in her seat she placed her hand on his cheek and kissed him for some time before pulling away again.

The following meal had been excellent, Spike had ordered the food from the little Italian restaurant along the street where they often went for meals (Spike having long ago admitted that he couldn’t cook to save his life). There was wine, (not too much or too strong because Dawn didn’t want to fall asleep and miss anything) then at about nine-thirty Dawn had looked at her watch and announced that ‘now’ might be a good time to go to bed.

Not being someone who needed to be invited twice, Spike led her by the hand up to his bedroom. Although Dawn had been a frequent visitor to Spike’s bedroom; why, she asked herself, was her heart thumping like an over-taxed oil pump in her chest (and why was she using these mechanical similes, very un-sexy)? As she sat down on the edge of the bed she found that her fingers were trembling as she unbuttoned her blouse. Could it be that she was having second thoughts, would Spike understand if she said she didn’t want to go ‘all the way’? Why was she asking herself these stupid questions? Of course she wanted to go ‘all the way’, in fact she wanted to go ‘all the way’ and if possible, a little bit further! Telling herself she was being stupid and acting like a thirteen year old virgin on her first date, Dawn quickly pulled off her blouse, and skirt. Keeping her heels on she stood and turned so Spike could see and get the full benefit of her ‘sexy underwear’.

Smiling when she noticed that she was having the hoped for reaction from Spike’s best friend, she kicked off her shoes, pulled back the bedclothes and slipped into bed, As Spike climbed in on his side, Dawn removed her bra and panties before laying back on the pillows and closing her eyes as she parted her lips and opened her legs.

The love making had been everything Dawn had hoped it would be, they’d done it three times before Spike had claimed a need for sleep, pointing out that they both had to work the following day. With a sleepy promise of more sex in the morning, Spike had drifted off to sleep with Dawn still in his arms. It was about at this moment that Dawn discovered that while falling asleep in your lover’s arms might sound romantic it wasn’t very practical. Already her arm was beginning to tingle because Spikes head was resting on it and cutting off the blood flow to her fingers. Shifting slowly so as not to wake him, Dawn managed to pull her arm free, it was then she noticed the next obstacle to post-coital sleep. There was a definite wet patch on the sheet under her butt. Having a good idea of what had caused said patch, Dawn shivered and wondered why they’d never mentioned this sort of thing in Sex-Ed when she’d been at school.

Shifting a little on the mattress, Dawn tried to get away from the furnace that was Spike’s body while not actually falling out of bed; she asked herself how anyone was supposed to get any sleep lying next to someone that felt like a log fire on a cold winter's night? Having never ‘slept’ with Spike, or indeed anyone else, Dawn hadn’t realised just how hot (and she meant that literally not figuratively) the human body was, something else they’d not mentioned in sex-ed. Just as Dawn was considering writing a letter of complaint to the school board, Spike began to snore.

Okay, that was it! In the last five minutes she’d gone from ‘Wow, that was fantastic!’ to never wanting to sleep with anyone ever again! Perhaps, she thought, they could get single beds and only actually get into the same bed when they wanted to make love, or maybe they’d only make love in the winter with the bedroom windows wide open. Turning onto her side, Dawn punched her pillows, closed her eyes and tried to ignore Spike’s snoring and get some sleep; it was at this point he rolled over and pulled the duvet off her, this was the final straw. Dawn was going home to her own comfy, cool and most importantly completely dry little bed. If Spike wanted to have sex with her ever again he’d have to come round to her house, do it and then leave!

Sitting up in bed, Dawn reached over to grab hold of the duvet and pull it back to her side of the bed when she froze in mid-grab; she’d heard something down stairs. Something that sounded like someone was moving around down there. Although she’d never spent the entire night at Spike’s apartment she was pretty used to the noises the building made as it cooled down after the heat of the day. This didn’t sound like the building contracting after a day in the sun, this sounded like burglars!

“Spike!” Dawn whispered loudly.

“Wa…?” Spike replied still fast asleep.

“Spike!!” Dawn said more urgently as she shook Spike’s shoulder trying to wake him; her first ever, real night of passion was turning into a scene from a bad sit-com.

“Sheesh woman are you never satisfied?” Spike finally woke up and rolled over to look at Dawn in the darkness.

“No…yes, Spike listen!” Dawn kept quiet as she turned to watch the bedroom door nervously, she could hear soft footsteps on the stairs leading from the store to the apartment.

“What the…?” Spike came fully awake as he realised that Dawn didn’t want more sex, she’d actually heard an intruder. “Wait here,” Spike told her urgently as he swung his legs out of bed, crossing the room to a chair where he slipped on the pair of jeans that were lying there before heading for the door, “Phone the police,” he told Dawn as he reached for the door handle.

Screaming in fear and panic, Dawn watched as Spike flew across the room, he’d been hit by the opening door. Wincing as the light was switched on, Dawn turned her head from where Spike groaned on the floor to the doorway where the tall, dark, intruder with the incredibly pale skin stood.

“Well, if it’s not my lucky night,” the intruder sneered as he took a step into the room, “if it’s not my old friend Spike and Buffy’s little, brat sister.” Angelus looked from Spike to Dawn and leered nastily, “What you been doing Spike? Poking the little sister, what’ll Buffy say about that?”

“You leave my sister out of this!” Dawn replied belligerently, only later wondering what the heck Buffy had to do with anything.

“What the heck are you talking about?” Spike demanded as he got to his feet and wiped blood away from his mouth.

“Of course,” Angelus gave a humourless laugh, “you don’t know who I am.”

It seemed to Dawn that the intruder took one impossibly fast step across the room to stand over Spike before hitting him again.

“SPIKE!” Dawn screamed as she saw the intruder’s fist smash into her lover’s head sending him crashing to the floor again. 

“Now to deal with you!” Suddenly the dark-man was on the bed with his arms either side of Dawn’s body, “Buffy’s going to be so pissed when she finds out what I’ve done to you!”

“NO!” Dawn screamed as she tried to find an escape route.

Even as she attempted to escape the rapist ran his fingers over her skin. Even as she tried to push his hands away, her mind kept asking questions like; how was he moving so fast, how come he was strong enough to knock her Spike senseless with one punch?

“Oh no!” Dawn gasped as she saw the intruder start to unzip his pants, looking at his hand she saw the faded bit marks on his fingers; it was him, the man who’d tried to rape her in the alley behind Mr Lyons’ shop.

“Yeah,” sneered Angelus as he saw the realisation in her eyes, “I’m going to finish what I started…”

“What?” Dawn snapped back, “With that tiny thing,” she gave a disparaging laugh, “Spike’s is way bigger than yours!”

“Why you…!?” angered almost to the point of killing the little slut, Angelus fought to control his temper; instead of killing her he’d teach the whore some manners, raising his fist he prepared to start a beating that would reduce Dawn to a broken, blob of flesh and blood that would welcome death.

Seeing her chance, Dawn rolled under the dark-man’s raised arm off the bed and onto the floor. Pulling her legs from the bed before the intruder could grab hold of her she rolled under the bed and didn’t stop rolling until she came out the other side. Giving the unconscious form of her lover a last look, she got to her hands and knees and crawled to Spike’s night stand and pulled the top drawer open.

On the other side of the bed the intruder was still trying to work out where his victim had disappeared to, he soon found out. Reaching into the draw, Dawn felt the butt of Spike’s service automatic against her fingers. Taking the weapon she held it in both hands and pulled back on the slide to load the first round. Shortly after starting their relationship, Spike had shown Dawn how to load and fire his pistol. His reason being that if the Pan Asians ever decided to attack Sunnydale, Dawn would need to defend herself against such a situation as the one she now found herself in. Her hands shacking violently, Dawn pointed the pistol in the general direction of the intruder.

“Bullets can’t kill me,” Angelus told her as he slowly got to his feet; Dawn screamed as his face morphed into the bestial snarl of a vampire on the hunt for blood.

Closing her eyes and turning her head slightly to one side, Dawn pulled the pistol’s trigger. The weapon boomed and bucked in her hand as she fired again and again at the unseen target on the other side of the room. The tiny part of her mind that wasn’t screaming and gibbering in panic registered the sound of something heavy hitting the floor. Opening her eyes, she found she couldn’t see her would be rapist. Getting unsteadily to her feet she saw the intruder lying on the floor in the doorway. There were two bullet holes in his chest and several more in the door frame, door and walls; there were even a couple in the ceiling! Thinking that her attacker must be dead, Dawn started to relax.

Screaming anew when she saw the rapist start to get up, Dawn fired again and kept on firing until the pistol was empty and the slide locked back on a depleted magazine. Opening her eyes once more, Dawn saw her attacker had gone. The sound of police sirens came fuzzily to her abused ears as she dropped the pistol and rushed over to kneel at Spike’s side. Lifting up his head she cradled it against her breasts and started to sob.

“Don’t died,” she repeated over and over again and that was how Officer Bloem and his partner found her as they burst into the room, guns drawn and ready to exact vengeance on the Sunnydale Rapist.

0=0=0=0

**Spike’s Apartment a little later.**

“Okay,” Detective Stein asked while at the same time dreading what he was going to hear; although there was no sign of blood in the bedroom that didn’t mean there weren’t bodies somewhere, “what have we got Walter?”

“Guy, was spending his first night together with his fiancé,” Walter started his report without even checking his notebook, “Around twelve-thirty the girl heard an intruder and woke her fella up, you know him I think, Bill Pratt?”

“Yeah I know him,” Stein nodded, “my eldest boy wants to buy a motorbike and we came looking for one here…go on.”

“Anyway, from what I could get out of the girl, the intruder was already coming through the door,” Walter gestured at the door and Stein noticed all the bullet holes for the first time. “Anyway, this intruder knocks Mr Pratt out and attempts to rape his girl…and you’re gonna love this Detective…!”

“I am?” Jim Stein didn’t look as if he was going to love anything anytime soon.

“Oh yeah,” Walter grinned and nodded, “she grabs her fiancé’s pistol, he’s in the Guard y’know and unloads a magazine of fourteen rounds in the intruder’s direction.”

“Did she hit him?” Stein asked hopefully.

“She must have at least winged him, CSU found some blood but not enough for a serious hit,” Walter paused keeping the best to the last, “you know who Bill Pratt’s fiancé is?”

“Not off hand,” Stein admitted.

“Dawn Summers,” Walter nodded as he saw recognition dawn on Stein’s face. “Yep, and she thinks it was the same guy who tried to attack her last week, came round to finish the job…”

“Bastard!” Stein cursed.

“Met his match both times, heck of a girl that Dawn Summers,” Walter pointed out, “that’s twice she fought this bastard off….”

“Yeah,” Stein agreed slowly, “heck of a girl.”

0=0=0=0


	17. Chapter 17

17.

**Sunnydale General Hospital.**

Sitting on the hard hospital chair holding her sister’s hand, Buffy watched Spike sleep through eyes that had never seen him as a vampire. In this world he was a pillar of the community, a man who owned his own business, a Lieutenant in the National Guard no less, the man who was going to marry her sister. Watching the unconscious man, Buffy noticed the differences; the most obvious change was that this Spike had dark blond hair untouched by bleach or hair dye. But there were also similarities like the scar that cut through his left eyebrow.

The call had come through at about one-thirty, waking both Buffy and Giles from their sleep. Listening to her mother on the phone Buffy heard how Dawn had been attacked yet again and how Spike was now in hospital. Not wasting a second, Buffy and Giles had got up, dressed and used precious gas to drive to the hospital. Here they found Buffy’s mom and dad with a tearful Dawn waiting for the doctors to tell them what was wrong with Spike. Finding herself inexorably drawn to her sister, Buffy had hugged her close and taken her to one side where they had a little privacy and Dawn could let her ‘hurt’ out and be comforted by her big sister. While Buffy did this, Giles took charge so that Hank could comfort Joyce without having to be bothered with doctors or hospital officials.

As Dawn cried on Buffy’s shoulder, the Buffy that had never had a sister started to wonder what it would have been like to have had a sister in her own life. Suddenly she felt glad, possibly for the first time since coming to this Alternative Sunnydale, that she was here; she had a sister who loved and looked up to her. Her mom and dad had never split up, she had a nice normal man who loved her and she had a child growing inside her. Just for a moment Buffy considered letting Slayer-Buffy lose herself in Wife-Buffy, to let her mind subordinate itself to this other woman, let her fade into the mind of the woman whose body she shared. When she’d first realised what was happening after her arrival in this alternate world, she’d almost slipped away then, but something had held her back and now she knew what it was.

Hearing Spike groan, Dawn stopped crying and joined Buffy in looking at the man in the hospital bed. He groaned again and moved, Buffy felt Dawn’s body tense against her own; the next few seconds would either destroy Dawn’s life or fill it with happiness.

“Nibblet?” Spike said faintly as his eyes flickered open.

“Spike!” Dawn breathed joyfully.

In an instant all Dawn’s fears and tears were forgotten, she sprang from the chair and was lying next to Spike on his bed in a flash.

“Hey Dawnie,” Buffy said uncertainly as she stood up, “I don’t think…” Dawn started to kiss Spike passionately right there in front of her, “…okay,” Buffy turned and started to head for the door, “I can see how you want to be alone.”

Out in the corridor Buffy started to look for Giles, seeing him with her mom and dad she walked over to him, took him by the hand and pulled him into a vacant room.

“Giles,” Slayer-Buffy spoke urgently, “we need to talk.”

“Buffy you’re back?” Giles asked not quite sure which Buffy he was talking to.

“It’s Slayer-Buffy,” Buffy reassured him.

“Do you know what’s been going on?” Giles asked quietly.

“I’ve been monitoring through other Buffy’s eyes and ears, I know what’s going on Giles,” Buffy felt the need to hold Giles’ hand just like other-Buffy would, “I know who’s doing this, who’s murdering people.”

“Who?” Giles asked eagerly, “We must tell the police.”

“Police couldn’t handle it here like the police couldn’t handle it back home,” Buffy replied sadly, “but because they’re better cops here than the ones we knew, more of them will get killed when they try.”

“You mean…?” Giles’ glasses came off in an instant and he started to polish them urgently.

“Yes,” Buffy nodded confirming Giles’ worst fears, “it’s a vampire…and I know which one.”

“Who?”

“Angel or at least the Angelus version of Angel,” Buffy continued sadly, her vampire lover had come back to haunt her and brought his evil self along for the ride.

“How can you be so sure?” Giles wanted to know.

“From the description Dawn gave me it could only be Angelus,” Buffy explained, “he knew I was here Giles, he knows that Dawn is my sister…”

“How?” Giles demanded, “He never met Dawn in our world…Dawn doesn’t even exist in our world.”

“But in this one she does and he totally knows where she lives,” Buffy continued, “the fact that she’s my sister is probably the reason he came after her the second time, he’s likely been tracking her. Finding her with Spike was probably a bonus, you know how they’ve always been rivals?”

“Indeed,” agreed Giles, “but how did he get into this world?”

“Maybe he got dragged along with us and left his soul behind,” Buffy theorised.

“Or perhaps we got sucked along by the same spell or whatever that brought him here.”

“You don’t think…?” Buffy thought back to the last few times she’d seen Angel in her reality; he’d seemed a little distant, somehow preoccupied, maybe he’d been planning to get away from Sunnydale and her to somewhere she’d never find him.

“Anything’s possible on the Hellmouth,” Giles pointed out with a shrug.

“We’ve…” Buffy paused before correcting herself, “…I’ve got to find him and end him, I was a fool not to have done it before, like the last time he turned evil and started killing people.”

“So, you agree?” Giles asked solemnly, “He has to die, you see that now?”

“Yeah,” Buffy nodded her head slowly, “Xander…our Xander was right all the time,” suddenly Buffy’s eyes grew wide with fear, “Xander! Willow! What if he goes after them?”

“I can call…” Giles suddenly saw a really good reason why he couldn’t call either Xander or Willow, he didn’t know their phone numbers, “…no I can’t,” he looked down at Buffy, “do you know there numbers?”

“Yeah,” Buffy headed for the public phone out in the corridor, “luckily in this world if we find one of them we’ll totally find the other.”

“Why?” Giles asked confused.

“Sometimes Giles,” Buffy frowned as she dialled Willow’s number, “for someone so smart you can totally be so dumb!”

Five minutes later and having woken up Xander’s father and Willow’s parents, Buffy still hadn’t been able to contact her friends

“Maybe they’re out of town,” Giles suggested.

“Hope so,” Buffy agreed, “in the meantime we’ve got to find Angelus, any ideas?”

“Well, traditionally he’ll want a lair either below ground or in a deserted building,” Giles pointed out.

“God, Giles, how many deserted buildings are there in Sunnydale?” Buffy asked defeated before she’d even begun.

“I know the police have launched a massive manhunt for this killer,” Giles told her, “perhaps they’ll turn up something.”

“And how many cops will die if they do?” Buffy demanded, “And it’ll only make him move somewhere new and we’ll be back to square one…” Giles could almost see the light switch on above Buffy’s head, “…of course the old manor!”

“Sorry?” Giles, realised he’d not put his glasses back on and replaced them now.

“In our world Angel used to live in that old manor place,” Buffy smiled at Giles, “y’know the one built by that eccentric millionaire in the ‘30’s?”

“Oh my god yes,” Giles agreed, “you think he might be there?”

“If it exists in this reality,” Buffy nodded, “tell you what; get the day off work tomorrow, even Synder won’t argue with having had your sister-in-law almost murdered…”

“I keep telling you the Synder in this world isn’t all that bad,” Giles explained for the umpteenth time, “I wish you’d go and talk to Cordelia about how marrying him wouldn’t be that bad…”

“Giles!” Buffy brought the impending Giles-babble to a halt, “Focus.”

“Sorry, yes,” Giles replied chastened, “you were saying?”

“Yeah, where was I? Right, okay,” Buffy took a deep breath, “look you get the day off so you can drive me around, see if we can find the manor. If we do and Angelus is using the place as his lair, I go in and slay him before he can kill anyone else.”

“You’re sure you can do that, Buffy?” Giles asked gravely.

“I’ll totally have to,” Buffy admitted; even now knowing what he’d done Buffy still had feelings for Angel. “You say there’s no magic in this reality so we can’t put his soul back. Either I kill him or he goes on killing people…” Buffy looked at her hands for a moment, she had too much to lose now to let Angelus go, “…I’m the Slayer,” Buffy explained, “at least some of the time, I have a duty to protect people…Angelus must die.”

“As long as you’re sure?” Giles knew how much this must hurt Buffy, almost as much as Jenny’s death had hurt him he suspected.

“Yes,” Buffy nodded, “now I need to be alone for a while, I need to talk to other-Buffy…its only fair that I explain what’s going on.”

“Of course,” Giles agreed, “I’ll go and check on your parents and Dawn.”

“Erm, Giles,” Buffy smiled, “you might not want to burst in on Dawn and Spike.”

“Why…?” the penny dropped in Giles’ mind, “…Oh my god they’re not…in the hospital?”

“Looked like it was going that way,” Buffy explained before becoming serious, “Have I mentioned how much I love you Giles? How we both love you…” Buffy shrugged, “…of course other-Buffy loves you in that squishy way an’all, but I totally love you coz you’re a good man…” she smiled, “…now go before I embarrass you some more!”

0=0=0=0

“You heard all that?” Buffy asked her other self.

“Yeah,” Buffy nodded; once again the two Buffy’s looked across a table at each other in Mr Lyons Tea Shop/The Espresso Pump, they both found it easier to communicate in this way. “You really went to bed with that horrible creature…that-that vampire thing?”

“When I went to bed with him he wasn’t a horrible creature,” Buffy pointed out, “he was nice if a little broody…”

“With a totally tiny…” Buffy didn’t get a chance to complete her sentence before Buffy interrupted her.

“Okay yeah,” Buffy agreed, “but I didn’t know it was ‘small’ until…”

“You’ve been peeking!” Buffy said with a giggle, “You’ve been peeking when Rupert and I have been making love, after you said you thought it was icky!”

“I’m sorry,” Buffy apologised to herself, “I couldn’t help myself…I was curious.”

“So, how does Rupert compare?” Buffy was actually curious to see how her Rupert measured up to other man-like creatures.

“Oh he’s…” Buffy shut her mouth with a snap, “…HEY! You’re totally getting us off topic!”

“Sorry,” Buffy glanced down at the table top, “I’m scarred Buffy, I’m not brave like you and what about the baby?”

“I know you’re scared,” Buffy reached across the table and took Buffy’s hand in her own, “you wouldn’t believe how scarred I was the first time I saw a vampire,” she paused for a breath, “I nearly wet myself!”

Buffy giggled in that delightfully innocent way she had.

“But,” Buffy continued as she held Buffy’s hand tightly in her own, “I’m you and you’re me and I know how strong and brave you really are, I mean…” Buffy laughed, “…when it comes to the time to actually have the baby, I’m running and hiding in the deepest little girl memories I can find. While I’m scared of that, you seem to be looking forward to it.”

“Totally.”

“Well that’s how I am about slaying Angelus,” Buffy explained, “he’s not Angel, he’s dead and we can’t get him back…” Buffy took a deep breath, “…he has to die so that everyone can be safe again and maybe, if Giles is right, maybe I’ll disappear back to my own world and you won’t have me in your head anymore.”

“I’d miss you,” Buffy admitted, “you’re funny as well as brave and it’s nice having a friend who’s always around to talk to.”

“So you’re okay with us going to slay Angelus?” 

“No,” Buffy shook her head, “I’d much rather we snuggle up with Rupert, but…” Buffy held up her hand to stop Buffy from interrupting, “…I understand that it’s got to be done and you-we have to do it. People think I’m ‘silly’ and that I’m not very bright but…but like you said, I’m you and you’re me, I know what has to be done…”

“Cool,” Buffy and Buffy stood up and broke the link between them.

“Buffy?” Turning Buffy saw Dawn standing in the doorway, she looked confused when she could only find her sister in the room, “Who were you talking to?”

“Oh, I was just talking to myself,” Buffy replied truthfully, “now how’s Spike and are you going to give him time to recover before making out with him again?”

0=0=0=0


	18. Chapter 18

18.

**‘The Manor’, Sunnydale.**

“Well, there it is,” Giles gestured to ‘The Manor’ as he brought the car to a halt.

“Yeah,” Buffy sighed as she looked out of the windscreen and up at the big, old house, “and its not even midday yet.”

Having left the hospital around dawn, Buffy and Giles had gone back to their apartment to collect weapons. It hadn’t taken them long there were very few weapons to collect, however, Buffy had found something she thought would surprise Angelus.

“Okay,” Buffy opened her door and started to get out, “let’s get this show on the road.”

“You’re going after him now?” Giles asked as he climbed from his side of the car.

“Why not?” Buffy called back as she turned and headed for the trunk, “It’ll make a change to hunt vampires during the day and I need to get a good night’s sleep…”

“I’m sorry?” Giles replied a little confused as he joined Buffy by the trunk.

“It’s totally in all the books Giles,” Buffy waited for Giles to open the trunk, “pregnant ladies should get a good night’s sleep…”

“Ah, yes,” Giles unlocked the trunk before standing back and watching Buffy open the hold all that held their pathetically small collection of weapons, “Of course…” Giles hesitated before continuing, “…d-do you think you should really be doing this in your…” Giles took his glasses off and made some vague gestures in the air with them, “…erm…condition?”

“Oh come on Giles,” Buffy pulled a stake from the bag, “if I don’t do it who will? I’m not the first woman to get pregnant, it’s not like I’m dying or something.”

“But you may well be the first slayer to be…erm…” Giles hesitated once again.

“I think ‘pregnant’ is the word you’re looking for,” Buffy stood facing Giles, looking up at him with her hands on her hips.

“And you’re my slayer and-and I’m responsible…” Giles went on with unaccustomed passion

“In more ways than one…” Buffy agreed with a smirk.

“No!” Giles said firmly, “I won’t allow it…y-you should stay here and I’ll go and deal with Angelus!”

“You deal with Angelus?” Buffy asked sceptically, “Remember what happened last time you fought him?”

“Y-yes I do,” Giles admitted, “but then I was angry, I wasn’t thinking straight what with Jenny’s death…”

“And the anger you felt is probably what kept you alive long enough for me to come and rescue you,” Buffy replied with more than a little of her own passion, “and its Other-Buffy who wants you to be more ‘forceful’!” Buffy looked up pleadingly into Giles’ eyes, “Slayer-Buffy needs her Watcher not Other-Buffy’s husband.”

“Oh,” Giles’ shoulders slumped, he knew Buffy was talking sense but it just didn’t feel right to be sending his pregnant wife to fight a monster like Angelus, “yes, of course you’re right,” he added without any great conviction, he grabbed hold of Buffy and hugged her fiercely, “be careful….”

“Erm Giles,” Buffy said from deep inside Giles’ embrace, “you can let me go now, you’re totally giving me the wig.” Once free of Giles’ arms Buffy stepped back and smiled reassuringly at her watcher, “Look when I come back you can totally give Other-Buffy a real good…erm…hugging? She’ll probably want that…in the mean time,” Buffy rummaged inside the hold all for a moment, “I said I’d brought something to give Angelus a surprise…”

Pulling the M14 rifle from the bag, Buffy rested the butt on her hip and grinned up at Giles.

“But that won’t kill him,” Giles explained automatically.

“No but it’ll put him down long enough from me to put Mr Pointy Junior through his heart,” reaching into the bag again Buffy pulled out a twenty round magazine and fitted it to the rifle. “Remember when I fought Darla?” Buffy started to give the rifle a final check, “She shot Angel with a hand gun, put him down for five minutes or more…”

“So you intend to incapacitate him with the rifle,” Giles nodded, “before staking him…” a smile slowly spread across Giles’ face, “…that’s brilliant!”

“Yeah, I thought so,” Buffy grinned, “I only hope I don’t get into trouble with your Minutemen friends for using your bullets.”

“Oh,” Giles shrugged, “under the circumstances…erm…try not to use too many would you?”

“Giles!” Buffy exclaimed, “Here I am going to face Angelus and all you’re worried about is me shooting him too much…”

“Well of course,” Giles replied unconcerned, “I have every confidence in you Buffy, I always have and always will.”

“Oh,” Buffy looked at the ground slightly embarrassed by her watcher’s show of support, “Oh, come here and give Other-Buffy a hug I think she needs it.”

“Rupert!” Buffy put down the rifle and rushed into her husband’s arms.

“Hey guys,” Buffy called after a couple of minutes hugging and kissing, “I said a hug not…” words failed Buffy for a moment, “…vampire to kill remember?”

“Y-yes of course,” reluctantly, Giles let Buffy go, “You-you better be off then.”

“Right,” Buffy picked up the M14, the weapon looked huge in her small hands, she started to walk towards the manor; pausing only once she looked back over her shoulder, “Remember, Giles, when we get back you give Other-Buffy a damn good hugging…” Buffy walked on towards the manor, speaking in a voice too low for Giles to hear she added, “…I think we’ll both need it.”

0=0=0=0

The Manor was built on a hill over looking Sunnydale. An eccentric millionaire by the name of Hiram Hackenbacker the Third had had it built in 1936; he’d later gone insane and shot himself one night after performing some demonic rite. Since then the manor had remained empty, ownership had passed from one corporation to another but no one had ‘lived’ there in years. Of course in the Sunnydale Buffy knew it was a popular ‘hang-out’ spot for the creatures of the night. Something to do with the building's design and location making it especially attractive to those Sunnydale residents who’d not evolved from apes.

Walking up to the boarded up French Windows, Buffy paused for a moment. This was here she’d always entered the house when she’d come to visit Angel. Whatever, she told herself, hefting the rifle in her hands and lifting a foot she kicked in the door, weapon at the ready she walked inside. Standing in the beam of light from the open door, Buffy quickly scanned the room for any sign of Angelus, she saw nothing. It would have been too easy for him to be standing there waiting to be killed. Walking a few more paces into the room, Buffy felt an itching sensation between her shoulder blades, turning quickly she was just in time to see Angelus step out of the deep shadow behind the door and push it closed thus reducing the light levels in the room dramatically; not that it bothered Buffy she could still see him clearly.

“Angelus!” Buffy breathed as she started to track his movements with the rifle.

“Is that anyway to greet your lover,” Angelus pointed at the rifle, “you know that won’t kill me…”

“Didn’t intend to kill you with it,” Buffy pointed out never letting the rifle waver off target for one second, “and you’re not my ‘lover’.”

“Oh yes,” Angelus laughed nastily as he continued his slow advance towards her, “what’s it like screwing your watcher, eh?”

“He’s a better man than you ever were,” Buffy replied coldly, “I mean he really measures up…know what I mean?” Buffy noted the flash of anger that crossed Angelus’ face as he realised he was being taunted. “Hey,” Buffy grinned, “do you know why women are so bad at parking?”

“What the hell…?” Angelus paused as he tried to work out what Buffy was talking about.

“Its easy really,” Buffy explained, “its because guys like you have always told them that this…” Buffy held up the thumb and middle finger of her left hand so they were about four inches apart, “…was twelve inches!”

“Why you bitch!” Angelus leapt at Buffy just as she fired the M14 single handed; the heavy 7.62mm slug hit Angelus reducing his right kneecap to bloody ruin, he slid to a halt at Buffy’s feet.

“What I totally don’t understand,” Buffy stepped out of reach of Angelus’ wildly clawing hands; he might be injured but he was still dangerous, “is how you got here.”

“Ah,” Angelus pushed himself up into a sitting position and glared up at Buffy who stood just out of his reach, “that hurts…” he gasped a he clutched at his wounded knee, “…I wanted to be away from you…” Angelus snapped, “…you were driving me mad with you puppy-dog eyes and your whining. So, I did a spell, I knew if I went somewhere like LA you’d just follow me like the pathetic, snivelling bitch you are, but even that didn’t work out.”

“So you came here,” Buffy ignored Angelus’ goading, “and left your soul behind.”

“Yeah, that was an unexpected bonus,” Angelus smiled as he tried to push himself a little closer to where Buffy stood; noticing his movement Buffy took another step away from him. “you followed me here, how’d you do that?”

“Hey,” Buffy smiled brightly, “a girl has her secrets…”

“Well,” Angelus sneered, “you’ve trapped here with me…you and Giles… the only way back is by magic and there’s no magic here so you’re stuck here forever,” sniggering Angelus morphed into his demonic visage, “you and your watcher-lover…what’s it like having him inside you Buff? Does it do something to have your father figure fuck you hard every night, do yoAAAAAGH!”

Buffy fired reducing Angelus’ left elbow to a useless collection of bone splinters. Staring down at the creature who’d once been her lover, Buffy fought for control over her emotions. This was Angelus not Angel, Angel the vampire who’d been her lover was gone forever leaving a blood sucking, murdering fiend behind. Feeling the need to hurt the creature, to make its last few moments on this, or any other Earth as miserable as possible, Buffy took a step towards the vampire and crouched down next to the demon.

“You know,” Buffy said in a low whisper, “Giles is sooo much better at it than you ever were, like he’s _way_ bigger and you know what!” Buffy watched the creature writhe in pain on the floor with dead eyes, “He doesn’t turn evil and start killing people when we get to the cuddling part afterwards…”

“You wait ‘til he starts to take those little blue pills,” Angelus mocked.

“Oh screw you!” Buffy stood up and pointed the rifle at Angelus’ head.

“No thanks, you were never that good,” Angelus laughed in her face.

“Say goodbye, small fry…” lifting the heavy rifle to her shoulder, Buffy fired again putting a round through Angelus’ forehead.

Watching for a moment through tear blurred eyes Buffy saw her one-time lover spasm in his death throws. Of course he wasn’t dead, left to recover for long enough he’d get well again and come back to hunt her and everyone she loved down and kill them. Her mom and dad, her sister, all her friends…Giles. Angelus would take sadistic pleasure in seeing them all die, and the three ‘lives’ that she was directly responsible for would have to watch them all be murdered by this…this thing that jerked spasmodically at her feet.

Placing the rifle on the floor next to her, Buffy pulled Mr Pointy Junior from the waist band of her shorts and knelt down next to Angelus. Just for a moment she thought she saw the face of her lover through all the blood, brain and bits of bone that stained his face. Closing her eyes she shook her head to rid herself of the vision that might stop her doing what she knew she had to; what she should have done the first time she’d realised that Angel was a vampire. Raising the stake, Buffy plunged it into Angelus’, cold and murderous heart. There was a sound like sand falling onto a stone floor and when Buffy looked again Angelus…Angel was gone never to return to this or any other world. Taking hold of the rifle, Buffy stood up, looking down at the pile of dust she sighed sadly.

“And this time _stay_ dead!” she told the dust before heading for the door.

Stepping outside she felt the warm Californian sunshine on her face, she saw Giles waiting for her by the car. As she walked towards him she could see the relieved look on his face turn into a wide smile. He loved her and both the Buffy’s loved him, somehow they’d make it work, if what Angelus had said was true they’d have to, there was no going back now.

As she approached Giles, Buffy let Other-Buffy slowly take over, she felt her love, her need for him slowly fill her mind, he really was her ‘everything’. Just for a moment Slayer-Buffy wondered what made Wife-Buffy love Giles so much, she smiled as she realised she didn’t care, it was enough to know that she loved him.

“Rupert?” Buffy dropped the rifle onto the overgrown path and rushed into Rupert’s arms.

“Buffy!” Rupert hugged the girl tightly as she held on to him drawing her strength from him.

After a moment or two, Buffy pushed herself away from Giles just a little and looked up into his eyes.

“Hey,” she grinned impishly, “you wanna do it on the hood of the car?” The suggestion hadn’t been entirely Wife-Buffy’s, “I know how you like it…” this wasn’t entirely true; Slayer-Buffy knew how he and had mother had done it on the police car in another Sunnydale in another world.

0=0=0=0

“What the heck…?” Officer Pete Hernandez stood over the pile of dust that had once been the Sunnydale Rapist.

“I don’t know,” his partner, Officer Walter Bloem replied before turning to look at Detective Stein.

The three policemen had been searching the manor; starting at the top of the house, they’d been working their way down through the building when they’d heard the first shot. Drawing their weapons they’d moved quickly and quietly down to the main hall. Here in the dim light from the boarded up windows they'd watched the strange little drama unfold too shocked to do anything but watch.

“Buffy Giles obviously knew him,” Stein looked from the pile of dust to the half open door through which Buffy had left.

“He was some sort of…” Hernandez was at a loss to explain what the tall dark haired man was, “…some sort of alien?”

“Then what does that make Mrs Giles?” Bloem asked, “You saw her shoot him and stab him with that wooden dagger thing.”

“Yeah,” Stein looked back at the dust which was already starting to disperse in the draft coming in from the door, “and you know what we’re going to do and say about this?”

“What’s that, detective,” Bloem had noticed the tone of determination that had entered Jim Stein’s voice.

“Nothing,” Stein said simply.

“But…?” Hernandez started to interjected.

“In all probability that was the Sunnydale Rapist,” Stein explained, “I’m betting things will go back to normal pretty quick now.”

“Like they did twenty years ago after the last time this happened,” Bloem pointed out.

“This has happened before?” Hernandez looked questioningly at his partner.

“Yeah,” Bloem nodded his head, “whole bunch of rapes and murders then nothing.”

“What about Mrs Giles?” Hernandez asked, “We’re just gonna let her walk away?”

“Why not?” Stein asked, “Where’s the evidence that she did anything? Okay we’ve got a couple of spent cartridges, all we could charge her with is discharging a firearm within city limits, a fine at most.”

“Yeah,” Bloem nodded his head in agreement, “even that’s stretching it,” he grinned, “what judge is gonna do more that tell a cute little thing like her off?”

“No, we’ll say nothing,” Stein turned away as the last few specks of the Sunnydale Rapist blew away, “in a week or so everything will be back to normal and we can get on with our lives.”

“What if something else like…” Hernandez gestured over to where the dust had been, “…ever comes back.”

“Well,” Stein halted at the door and turned to look at his two colleagues, “we better spot it and we better hope that Mrs Giles knows how to deal with it.”

“Agreed,” Bloem and Hernandez chorused.

“Okay,” Stein sighed, “there’s nothing suspicious here, what’s next on our list?”

“You’re going on with the search?” Hernandez asked.

“Sure,” Stein led the way out into the sunshine, “we’ve still got a killer to catch…”

0=0=0=0


	19. Chapter 19

19.

**Domestic Bliss?**

**The Giles’ Residence about Six Months Later.**

Standing at the working surface of her new kitchen, Buffy once again thought how lucky she was to have such a loving husband like Rupert Giles and such a wonderful new home. They’d moved in about three months previously, if she was honest with herself Buffy knew they’d only been able to afford such a large house because she’d gone to school with Xander Harris’ wife, Willow. Xander, the soon to be managing director of Harris Homes, had cut the price of the house to almost ‘cost’. This was all happened because Mr Harris Senior’s health had recently taken a turn for the worse and Xander had taken over the running of the family business.

Although Buffy was sad about poor Mr Harris Senior, she was glad that Xander was now in charge because it’d meant Rupert and herself could afford to move into their new home. This was just as well because in another two months or so there’d be another little ‘Giles’ who would need somewhere to sleep. Plus they now had a real backyard, with real trees to climb, just what a growing boy would need, Buffy was quite sure that the child she was carrying was a boy even if the scans hadn’t been conclusive where the baby’s sex was concerned.

Glancing up at the kitchen clock, Buffy told herself that she better get on, her best friend Willow and her sister, Dawn, would be arriving soon to visit. Willow only lived a few houses down the road while Dawn lived over the shop that Spike, her husband, owned, in central Sunnydale. Standing back Buffy checked she’d got everything ready; milk, two different fruit juices and a selection of Buffy-snacks. There was banana and anchovy for Dawn, salt beef and peanut-butter for Willow and cheese and raspberry jelly for herself, Willow would also be bringing a supply of her famous cookies.

Satisfied that everything was ready, Buffy started to ferry everything out into the family room in the front half of the house. She’d got about half of everything set out when there was a knock at the door. Putting down the plates of snacks Buffy hurried over to the door as fast as she could, before opening the door she checked herself out in the mirror next to the coat stand, satisfied with what she saw, she opened the front door.

“Buffy!” Willow cried as soon as she saw her friend.

“Willow!” Buffy squealed with joy on seeing her best friend in all the world.

The two women tried to hug but their swollen bellies got in the way, after a moment or two struggling to get close to each other they gave up and Buffy led Willow into her home.

“Say,” Willow looked Buffy up and down, “nice dress, is it new?”

“You like?” Buffy beamed, “I bought it yesterday at the mall.”

“It’s real pretty,” Willow complemented.

In the reality in which Buffy and Giles now lived, maternity dresses seemed to be designed to celebrate the fact that a woman was pregnant and not try to hide the fact away. The designers wanted the wearer to feel good about herself and her body, that she was still desirable.

“You don’t think the neck lines like too low, do you?” Buffy asked with a slight frown.

“No,” Willow shook her head as she reassured Buffy, “you’ve got nice boobs you should show ‘em off I say…” Willow hesitated for a moment as she checked out the rest of Buffy’s outfit, “…erm, but I don’t think I’d wear anything quite so short.”

“You wouldn’t?” Buffy looked at Willow’s dress which was well above the knee, “It came with matching panties so if anyone did see up the dress they’d…”

“Oh that’s totally alright then,” Willow replied with a relieved shrug, “of course I’ve not got the legs for something like that,” Willow looked sad for a moment, she’d always been insecure about how she looked.

“You’ve got nothing to be ashamed of Will,” Buffy complemented her, “now give me those cookies so I can put them on plates, then we’ll get the rest of everything set out.”

Letting Buffy take the tub of cookies, Willow watched as Buffy headed out to the kitchen. Once again Willow checked out Buffy’s outfit as she walked away from her. ‘Damn it’ Willow sighed, Buffy was just so damn cute if she was the sort of woman that liked other women, Buffy would have to watch out! But she wasn’t and Willow remembered how they’d double dated when they’d been at school together. The boys had all wanted to go out with Buffy, Willow felt she’d always been there as a sort of ‘second prize’. If it wasn’t for the fact that she’d always had Xander in the background she might have got bitter or even jealous of her best friend. A knock at the door jogged Willow out of her musings about the past.

“Will!” Buffy called from the kitchen, “Could you get that? It’s probably Dawnie.”

“Sure,” Willow headed for the door to let in Dawn, the third member of the ‘Pregnant Trio’.

All three women had fallen pregnant one after the other, Buffy was seven months gone, Dawn was five months and Willow was six months. Smiling to herself as she opened the door, Willow couldn’t help thinking that these little get-togethers were going to get real noisy in a few more months.

“Dawnie!” Willow smiled and kissed Dawn on the cheek, Dawn wasn’t so big as to make hugging and kissing difficult as yet.

“Hi Willow,” Dawn smiled as she walked into Buffy’s house, the younger woman giggled, “y’know it still gives me a thrill when guys I might have dated at school call me ‘Ma’am’!”

“Don’t worry,” Willow’s lips turned down, “it soon wears off.”

“Hey,” Dawn pushed the door closed behind her, “why so down? Pregnancy blues?”

“Sorta,” Willow admitted, “its something I totally wanna talk to the group about…later okay?”

“Sure,” Dawn gave her friend a concerned look as they walked into the family room together.

“Dawnie!” Buffy cried happily on seeing her sister; putting down the plates of Buffy-snacks she rushed across the room to greet her sister, after a little struggle the two young women managed to kiss each other in greeting.

“Cool dress, Buffy,” Dawn said admiringly, “where’d you get it?”

“Tell you later,” Buffy gestured for everyone to take a seat, “Okay,” Buffy said once everyone was comfortable, “I call this meeting of the Romero Drive Chapter of The League of American Mothers to order we’ll wave the minutes and call for new business…”

“Seconded…” Dawn called out.

“Carried,” Buffy said when she saw that Willow didn’t want to object, “New business?”

“I think there’s something Will wants to say,” Dawn announced.

“Erm yeah,” Willow replied slowly, “thanks Dawnie for pushing me to the front like that…”

“Any time,” Dawn grinned as she started to nibble on a banana and anchovy snack.

“What’s up Will?” Buffy could see something was making Willow sad.

“Well…,” Willow looked at her two closest friends, “…it’s sex! Or the lack of it!” Willow breathed a sigh of relief before continuing, now she’d said it, it didn’t feel so bad, “I mean you guys still do it right?”

“Oooh yeah!” Dawn nodded eagerly, “Spike can’t keep his hands off me…” Dawn sipped from a glass of juice, “…only last night after work we did it on the kitchen table and…and this isn’t something I should be sharing right now is it?”

Buffy shook her head, before adding, “Giles still likes to do it, although he has to wait to be asked, I think it’s an English thing…”

“HA!” Dawn interrupted having an English husband too, “Spike never needs to be asked he just gets right on with it like the other day he…” Dawn ducked her head and looked guiltily at the two older women, “...I’m doing it again aren’t I?”

“Uh-huh,” Buffy nodded her head at her sister, “you can tell me later, we can compare notes, but now its time to deal with Willow’s problem…”

“It’s not a problem,” Dawn piped up, “I love it, it’s so…oh…” Dawn caught the hard look Buffy was giving her, “…sorry.”

“That’s what I was afraid of,” Willow said miserably, “Xander won’t touch me…like in having sex…okay he still touches me, you know holds my hand and…”

“Okay, we get the picture,” Buffy stopped the Willow babble before it could get properly started, “so Xander doesn’t want to have sex…” Buffy gave Dawn a hopeless glance, “…what not at all?”

“No,” Willow shook her head and looked down at her belly as her tears trickled down her cheeks.

In an instant the Summers sisters were sitting on the couch on either side of Willow with their arms around her shoulders and waist.

“Not even oral?” Dawn asked shocked to the very core of her being; Spike and herself still had a fantastic sex life, okay they might have to slow down a little in the last month or so, but not to have sex at all, that was unbelievable.

“No…” Willow sniffed.

“Does he say why?” Buffy passed Willow a tissue from the box on the coffee table.

“He says he’s too tired,” Willow sobbed, “and he has been working real hard since ‘dad’ had to retire.”

“What _all_ the time!” Dawn gasped, “I mean, he’s too tired even if you get on top?”

“Not helping Dawnie,” Buffy told her sister.

“Sorry,” Dawn said quietly, “I’ll shut up now.”

“Would you like me to talk to him?” Buffy offered.

“Would you?” Willow said hopefully, “Y’know I keep thinking he doesn’t love me or he doesn’t want the baby, that he made a terrible mistake marrying me…”

“Don’t worry I’ll show him the error of his ways,” Buffy said just a little too belligerently.

“Hey,” Willow gave Buffy a worried look; something was different about he friend these last few months, she’d changed in some subtle ways not long after she’d fallen pregnant, “I don’t want you to beat him up or anything…”

“Don’t worry Will,” Buffy reassured her, “I won’t lay a finger on him I’ll just find out why he’s acting like a jerk…”

“Hey!” Dawn broke her pledge of silence, “He’s not jerking off in the bathroom with a load of magazines is he? I mean that’s totally gross!”

“DAWN!” Buffy snapped at her sister as Willow started to cry again at the thought that her husband preferred pictures of girls in magazines to her.

“Sorry,” Dawn apologised again as she joined Buffy in trying to comfort Willow.

0=0=0=0

“Here’s something that should cheer everyone up,” Buffy announced a little later.

It had taken Buffy and Dawn a good ten minutes to calm Willow down and convince her that Xander was probably just being a jerk and wasn’t about to turn into a pervert. Girlie mags were okay for, teenage boys to snigger over, but for a married man with an attractive wife like Willow, they were just sick.

“Mrs Gonzales was wondering if we’d all like to do some photographs for that magazine the League does for the troops,” Buffy explained; Mrs Gonzales was the ‘League Mother’ for the Sunnydale area.

“What sorta photographs?” Willow asked still a little red-eyed from her earlier upset.

“Oh, totally tasteful,” Buffy reassured her, “mostly bikini shots, maybe a couple of topless pictures…” Buffy smiled, “…y’know, remind the guys at the front what they’re fighting for.”

“Sure,” Dawn shrugged, “I’ll want to check with Spike first, but if he says it’s okay I’m in.”

“Willow?” Buffy turned to her friend.

“I don’t know,” Willow replied, “y’think anyone would wanna look at pictures of me?”

“Don’t be silly,” Buffy told her, “of course they will.”

“Okay,” Willow agreed, “if you guys are doing it I will too.”

“Yeah!” Dawn added, “Show that jerk of a husband of yours that other people think you’re hot!”

“Dawn!” Buffy said warningly.

“Hey, I’m just saying,” Dawn shot back.

“SO!” Willow cried trying to prevent open warfare breaking out between the two sisters, she turned to Buffy, “Did Rupert say it was okay?”

“Haven’t asked him yet,” Buffy said airily, “but when I’ve finished with him he will!”

0=0=0=0

The three young women sat and chatted as they demolished the plates of snacks and cookies. Eventually Dawn said she needed to get back to Spike and called for a peddle-cab to take her home. After Dawn had left, Buffy saw Willow to the door.

“Look I’ll tell you what I’ll do,” Buffy smiled reassuringly at her friend, “I’ll explain everything to Rupert then we’ll come ‘round on Sunday afternoon if that’s okay?”

“Yeah,” Willow nodded, “I’ll make sure Xander stays in.”

“Good, then Rupert will have a quiet chat with Xander,” Buffy smiled, “y’know, words of wisdom from an older man that sorta thing.”

“You think that’ll work?” Willow asked hopefully.

“If it doesn’t,” Buffy sighed, “that only leaves the violent option…”

“You know Buff,” Willow looked at her friend closely; the girl she’d grown up with while being sweet and cute and helpful hadn’t been that bright or as responsible as the young woman who was standing in front of her now, “you’ve changed…”

“For the better I hope?” Buffy asked.

“Of course,” Willow nodded, “like, sure, you’re…” she struggled for the right words, “…you’re more grown up!”

“I should hope so,” Buffy patted her belly, “look, do you want me to walk you home?”

“No I’m fine, thanks,” Willow gave her friend a hug as best she could, “I feel better now I’ve shared, y’know?”

Watching her friend as she headed for home, Buffy stood on her porch and contemplated what Willow had said.

“More grown up are we?” Buffy asked herself.

“Well duh,” Buffy replied.

In the six months or so that the two Buffy’s had lived in the same body they’d become adept at swapping personas. Like the last hour or two had been mostly ‘Wife-Buffy’ talking with only minor interjections from ‘Slayer-Buffy’. Normally on these sorts of occasions Slayer-Buffy would sit at the back of Wife-Buffy’s mind and listen and watch what was going on. It was only when the topic of Xander’s jerkiness had come up that she’d really started to take an interest. Although the Xander in this reality was a good three or more years older than the Xander she was used to, he did at times exhibit traits she was used to seeing in the younger Xander.

“So, what about these photos?” Slayer-Buffy asked.

“It’s patriotic,” Wife-Buffy replied defensively.

“You do know that anyone who sees them will be totally doing more than just looking, don’t you?” Slayer-Buffy pointed out.

“And why not?” the Buffys turned to go back into the house, “We’re hot!”

“I don’t know about ‘hot’,” Slayer-Buffy pointed out, “but you’re a…”

“What’s this?” Wife-Buffy stopped them in their tracks and turned to look across the road to where a car had just pulled up outside the empty house across the street, “New neighbours?”

A furniture van arrived moments later, seemingly to support Wife-Buffy’s observation.

“Looks like,” Slayer-Buffy agreed curious in spite of herself.

Watching as a young dark haired woman climbed out of the car, Slayer-Buffy pushed Wife-Buffy away from the Buffy-controls and took over the Buffy-body completely.

“Faith!” Slayer-Buffy hissed.

The End.

**Author's Note.**  
Chapter Nineteen was originally going to be chapter one for another story set in this alternate reality. However, other things came up and I never got round to doing anything else with the story so I decided to post it here at the end of 'Changes'.

Changes was written mainly for my own amusement and as a way of getting over some writer's block. I felt the need to get out of my comfort zone and write something different to my usual stuff and 'Changes' was the outcome. To be honest I'm a little surprised that its been so well received, so, thank-you for that.

So what's to post next? I've got some semi-original stories I want to post, and since writing 'Changes', I've got one Buffy story I've finished and another I'm working on, these will probably be posted on AO3 in the next few months.

Finally I'd like to thank everyone who's read and added 'Kudos' for this story.

Cheers,  
Steeleye.


End file.
